A WOMAN whose niece placed a bet that she would reach her 105th birthday has died at 100.

Freda Owen died at her home in St Thomas Road, Trowbridge, last Wednesday, just a few weeks before she would have celebrated her 101st birthday. It was on her aunt's 100th birthday that Elizabeth Pearce, of South Wigston, Leicestershire, placed a £105 bet with William Hill bookmakers she would live to be 105.

Mrs Pearce said this week: "She really started to go downhill last October. She did try going into a home for two weeks but she didn't enjoy it. She was bored so she went back home.

"She was an amazing woman, there is not much more I can say than that."

On her 100th birthday Mrs Owen was as lively and active as someone much younger and celebrated her centenary with a big party for all her friends and family. Mrs Pearce placed the bet as a birthday gift at odds of 105-1 and stood to win £11,130, which she planned to use to throw another big party for her aunt.

Mrs Owen was born Freda Billing in North Wales and moved to Trowbridge 54 years ago to take up a job as senior mistress at the Victoria Commercial School, which once stood in Market Street. After 13 years she moved to Roundstone School where she remained for 13 years until she retired in 1971.

She married George Owen in 1952 and the couple were married for 10 years before his death. Far from the type to settle into a relaxed retirement she carried on teaching part-time for several years and took up voluntary work, which she continued to do until she turned 90.

Even at 100 she continued to pursue a wide range of interests, belonging to three poetry groups and the Workers' Educational Association. Undaunted by a challenge she decided to give up smoking at the age of 80, after smoking five a day for nearly 60 years. On her 100th birthday the keen reader was planning to learn German.

Many former pupils are expected to attend her funeral, to be held at St Thomas Church, Trowbridge, at 11.30am today.