Jean's staying fighting fit
She has met Prince Charles, raised £85,000 for charity and has been running keep fit classes in the Black Country for 35 years.
Despite being 70, Jean Hughes says she has no plans to quit as her classes in Wordsley, near Stourbridge, attract more than 100 each week.
"I have been doing aerobics at Richardson Hall in Wordsley for 35 years," she said. "I used to do 10 classes a week but now, due to family commitments, it is just three but I have 100 members, and some of them have been with me for many years.
"My oldest member is 90 later this year and has been coming to my classes for the last 30 years.
"They enjoy the type of keep-fit I'm doing but it is the friendships that people forge which keep them coming back.
"A lot of them have been coming for so long now it is a way of life for them. Several of them started coming when they were in their 30s and had young children - now they are pensioners.
"They travel from as far away as Craven Arms, as well as Stourbridge, Kinver and Penn."
Last year Jean was nominated to attend the Queen's garden party where she got the chance to rub shoulders with royalty.
She said: "I'm lucky that I have such a good keep-fit group and they are all enthusiastic about collecting money for charity.
"While we are keeping fit we know that there are people who are not as lucky as us. We have handed over £1,265 to Russells Hall Hospital's GI unit.
"We have given £2,500 to the stroke unit to buy two special chairs and we donated £10,000 to buy two dogs for disabled people.
"We raise the money with raffles, bring-and-buy sales, fish and chip suppers, a sponsored keep-fit and we always do the Wordsley fun-run. All the money mounts up and so far we raised £85,000.
"I was nominated to attend the Queen's garden party last July. It was an honour to attend and I shook hands with Prince Charles and Camilla.
"I started collecting money in 1984 when the half pennies were going out of circulation. The first collection we did was for Cancer Research and people were so keen they put in notes and it escalated from there."
Doris Footman, 89, from Stourbridge is Jean's oldest member and has been attending the classes for 30 years. Doris said: "I always take a full part in the classes because I like the company and it keeps me feeling young. I started coming to the class 30 years ago when I was made redundant from a store in Brierley Hill.
"Everyone is pleasant and talks to me. It is a happy, friendly atmosphere and Jean is a great teacher."
