Bend it like 90-year-old Cora

But not so great-grandmother Cora Whitten, who will be 90 next month, leads two popular exercise classes in South Staffordshire - and has every intention of carrying on until she is 100.

She said: "I won't give in to old age. I don't do anything silly like the splits but I can sit cross-legged like a naughty schoolgirl. It's all about the stretch."

The remarkable pensioner teaches around 80 people every week at classes in Penkridge and Stafford where she has been holding exercise sessions for the last 34 years.

And she strongly believes her passion for work-outs over the last three and a half decades is the reason she is so supple and full of energy today.

She started suffering from back problems when she was a relative youngster of 24 but it was not until she went into hospital in 1969 to have a stomach ulcer removed that she decided to get a grip of her health.

She said: "I thought 'I'm too young to be sitting around' so I found a keep-fit class and loved it. But after a while the teacher told me that it was time to move on because I was better than her and she pushed me to do train to start a class of my own."

Standing up to demonstrate, she said: "I like to involve the whole body in a movement so that when you stretch your arms up you could also bend your knees and maybe wiggle your shoulders so that every part is on the move, all with lovely music in the background."

Cora, of Attlee Crescent, Highfields, Stafford, uses home-made music tapes featuring old-time greats like the Joe Loss Orchestra but after so many years they are wearing thin.

"I've chosen the songs to fit in exactly with the exercises. I'd really love to find someone with the same music so I could re-record them," she said.