A 105 year-old woman who grew up in New Zealand has revealed the secret to her longevity - no sex.
Clara Meadmore told the Daily Mail in Truro, Cornwall, that during her youth sex entailed marriage -- and she just did not buy into it.
"People have asked whether I am a homosexual and the answer is no. I have just never been interested in or fancied having sex.
"I imagine there is a lot of hassle involved and I have always been busy doing other things."
She was proud that she had remained celibate.
"I made my mind up at the age of 12 never to marry and I've not gone back on that."
Her family emigrated to New Zealand in 1910, when she was seven, but she moved back to Britain alone in her 20s, and has never had sex in her life.
Miss Meadmore, who remembers New Zealand declaring war -- in World War 1 -- said she abstained from sex as a young woman in order to concentrate on earning a living.
Miss Meadmore who was born in Glasgow in 1903 - just two years after the death of Queen Victoria - said she had to work to support herself as a secretary and a housekeeper.
She received several offers of marriage, but turned them all down.
She will celebrate her 105th birthday tomorrow at a party with friends at a nursing home.
