Dot Smyth has a birthday card at her home in Stepney Green sent from the Queen — to celebrate reaching a special milestone.

She was able to catch up with friends and swap memories at her 100th birthday party in Hawthorn Green care home.

Dot was a regular at Bethnal Green Mission Church in Cambridge Heath Road and had a catch up with her priest Michael Houston and friends Patricia Davis and Rory Pagel Wilks.

“I have known Dorothy for many years,” Rory recalled. “She was at my wedding and we look on her as a ‘grandmother’ to our three children.”

Dorothy was well-known for her homemade apple pies, having learned her baking skills from her mother when she was growing up in Bethnal Green during the 1920s.

Farzana Khatun, one of the Hawthorn Green staff, said: “Dot was able to reconnect with her friends and her priest who are so important to her, which made it a special day.”

Dot remains an active member of the church and the arts club at the home in Redmans Road, even at 100.