A sweet-toothed great-grandmother believes she’s reached the grand old age of 100 because she drinks “24 cans of Coke a week”.
Sprightly centenarian Maud Johnson thinks her diet of full fat Coca Cola and heaps of sugar gives her the energy to keep going.
Mrs Johnson drinks at least 24 cans of Coca Cola a week alongside plenty of coffee with six sugars in every time.
That equates to the busy great gran, who goes out socialising three or four times a week, to “tasting the feeling” of over 400 litres of the iconic drink every year.
She said: “I don’t know when I started drinking coke but I just drink it all day, either that or coffee.”
Friend Diane Brimmell told BirminghamLive “it’s well known that Maud drinks 24 cans of coke a week”.
She said: “She has six sugars in her Cappuccinos and likes red wine too. For at least the past 23 years, she’s been drinking coca cola like that, probably much longer.
“But she walks quicker than some of the people 20 years younger than her and won’t use a zimmer frame or wheelchair. Whenever you ask her, ‘how are you Maud?’ she says ‘I’m living, darling, I’m living’.”
Turning 100 on Wednesday, July 26, the great-grandmother celebrated with, naturally, her favourite tipple of a coke, but also pushed the boat out with a Baileys too.
Tesco’s Extra store in Redditch even donated cakes and a bottle of sherry for a bash with family and friends at Studley’s Entaco Sports and Social Club.
Despite once living in the tea growing region of India during World War Two, where her husband Arthur was stationed as a soldier, Maud loves her sugary drinks but never touches tea.
She’s lived in the same house in Redditch since 1947 although her husband died in the 1990s. She spent most of her career working as secretary to the personnel manager at iconic Herbert Terry and Sons factory, known affectionately in Redditch as Terry’s Springs.
Son Gordon Johnson, 80, said all the family were coffee drinkers, which may be why his mum liked Coke so much.
He said: “Despite living in India, where I was born, in the heart of tea plantation country, none of us drink tea. It’s all coffee for us.
“She had a lovely birthday and got a telegram from King Charles and we ran out of vases by the afternoon from all the flowers.”
