At 81 you would expect the borough's oldest paper girl to be considering retirement - but she has no intention of hanging up her paper bag just yet.

The Sutton Guardian's most dedicated distributer Margaret Evans will celebrate 23 years as a delivery girl later this year.

Former shop assistant Ms Evans took up the paper round in 1991 following the introduction of the poll tax.

Ms Evans, said: "I wasn't working at the time and when the tax got introduced my husband started grumbling about how we would struggle for money.

"I told him after it was announced that I was going to go out and get a job, and so I did, I got a job delivering the Sutton Guardian.

"As part of the deal, my husband got to buy himself four cans of bitter out of my wages every week."

Since then Ms Evans has been out with her trolley almost every Thursday, bar a couple of sick days.

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She said: "I really enjoy it. I see people when I'm doing the round and we stop and have a chat. As well as the friendly faces, doing the papers is great exercise for me at my age."

Ms Evans delivers 150 papers addresses on Park Gate Road, and Queens Road, not far from her own house on Mint Road, Wallington.

She said: "I'll work as long as you want me, I want to keep active for as long as I can."

Sean Duggan, group editor for the Sutton Guardian said: "Margaret is an inspiration. She goes out in all weathers, summer and winter, faithfully delivering the borough’s favourite newspaper to people’s homes each week.

She, and a small army of other delivery agents, young and old, are a vital part of our team. I only hope that I am that active when I reach Margaret’s age!"