WHEN Betty Musker turns 104 tomorrow (October 24), she will be handed nearly 5,000 cards wishing her a happy birthday.

The cards have been sent from as far away as Hong Kong and America and the 103-year-old great great grandmother even received some flowers from a well wisher in Austrailia last week.

But that is the only hint that Betty has about what is to come.

Lorraine Marshall, activities coordinator at Golborne House, the care home where Betty lives, said: “We asked her what she wanted for her birthday and she said all she wanted was a card or two.

“She said she had got 100 for her 100th birthday but she didn’t think she would get as many this time because a lot of her friends were dead so we thought we would post it on social media and try and get her a few more.

“We never expected to receive so many, on the first day a few arrived and then it has just snowballed from there.

“We had about 4,860 on the last count so we are hoping to reach 5,000.

“She is absolutely fantastic. The only thing wrong with her is her hearing but she is getting some new hearing aids for her birthday as well.”

Betty is originally from Liverpool but has lived at the Golborne home - which is closer to her one daughter, three granddaughters, six great grandchildren and six great great grandchildren (with one more on the way) - for just under a year.

She was born in 1910 and married Harry Musker when she was 21. She worked in a tobacco factory during the war, packaging the tobacco to be sent to the troops and then at the Dunlop plimsoll factory.

When asked what he secret was Betty said: “I carried on working until I was 82. I run an exercise class here and a baking class.

“I’ve all kept active – I used to do karate you know.”

And alongside her career, Betty has also done much charity work in her life -including knitting for ‘fish and chip babies’ - the name given to children in the third world whose parents only had newspaper to wrap them in.

She can regularly be caught making her own cards in her room for the staff at the home and her large family but nothing will prepare her for the number of cards she is about to receive.

Staff have also created a Facebook page called 'For the love of Betty Musker' to document the arrival of the cards.