STILL going strong at 104, May Townsend keeps doing her bit for the armed forces, something she first got involved in as a young girl during World War One.

Mrs Townsend has been helping fill shoe boxes to send out to members of the Royal Welsh in Afghanistan with her donations.

She first got involved in helping the troops when her brother, Jack Morden, served as a private in the First World War before he was killed.

In Blaina at the time, there was a shop called the 'penny fund' where people would give 1p a week and get materials to make socks and stockings for the troops.

Mrs Townsend, whose husband Thomas died in 1974, also lost two nephews, Ronald Jelly and Norman Davey, in World War Two.

Now, along with her fellow residents at Blaina's Riverside flats in Church Street, they have been filling more shoe boxes with socks, sweets, chocolate, toiletries and even copies of the Argus to send abroad.

Scheme manager at the flats, Caroline Bridge, said Mrs Townsend is a big supporter of the cause and always keen to help out with donations for the boxes: "She's very generous and gets involved in anything we do - she's got a very strong community spirit, helping out any way she can - that's May."

Mrs Townsend said: "I've always liked being involved in things like this."