A YORK man has reaped the benefits of an active outdoor lifestyle by celebrating his 100th birthday surrounded by family and friends.

Former gardener Stan Ray marked the impressive milestone at Rosevale Residential Care Home in Wigginton, York, where he has lived for five years.

Staff and residents at the home, together with family including three great nieces, gathered together yesterday to celebrate with Mr Ray.

The family enjoyed a buffet lunch and drinks, followed by entertainment. Then at teatime a birthday cake was presented to Mr Ray by the staff at the home.

Janice Hall, of Haxby, said her great uncle had been like a grandfather to her after he moved in with her family in 1947.

She said: "My father bought a smallholding in Nottingham in 1947 and Uncle Stan had worked as a market gardener all his life, so my dad suggested he came to live with us.

"I was about three then and he lived with my parents from then on - it was like having a built-in granddad.

"After my father died, he and my mother moved to York in 1995, but then my mother died in 1999. Uncle Stan moved into the home in 2000.

"He has had an outdoor life, and although he lost his wife at 40, he was looked after very well and didn't really have any worries.

"Even now he looks very well and it's hard to believe he's not going to go on forever."

Mrs Hall said that her great uncle was on very little medication, despite having a minor stroke five years ago, and still enjoyed sitting in the home's gardens.

Mr Ray was born in Cambridgeshire and was the second youngest of nine siblings

His wife Emily died in 1947. The couple had no children.

Updated: 10:54 Friday, February 18, 2005