Surrounded by friends and family at The Maltings Care Home, Marjorie Harris was overwhelmed with gifts, mementoes and cards, while pride of place was given to a card from The Queen.

There was also a framed certificate of congratulations from the Mayor of Manchester, where Marjorie used to live, and mementoes presented by Fakenham Mayor Brenda Coldrick and Deputy Mayor Jayne Cubitt.

Up until last year, Mrs Harris had lived independently in the Fayre Green protected homes estate just opposite The Maltings and many of her friends crossed the road to join her on her special day last Tuesday.

Daughters Pauline Ash and Jo Peel organised much of the celebration in association with home manager Rob Hammond. Mrs Peel entertained everyone by reading a poem she had composed which charted the life and times of her mum since the year of her birth in 1908.

Still retaining the slim demeanour of the former champion high jumper she once was, Mrs Harris took it all in, with good humour and the occasional aside.

As a promising young athlete in the 1920s, she first made her mark when she took part in the 1929 Women's World Games in Dusseldorf. This was an era when women were largely marginalised in the world of athletics and it was competitors like Mrs Harris who helped turn the tide.

In 1934 she only just missed out on winning a high jump medal in the British Empire Games – forerunner of today's Commonwealth Games – when finishing fifth with a leap of 5ft 31/2in. At that time, jumpers used the scissors method to get across the bar and were obliged to land in a sandpit.

Although Mrs Harris retired from active athletics in 1939 she continued to be involved in judging, organising and assisting with track and field events both in Manchester and Norfolk until well into her seventies.

In 2002, at the considerable age of 94, she was proud to don a designer athletics outfit to help carry the Commonwealth Games baton on one of its relay legs across Norfolk. And more than delighted to be a guest of honour at the Games themselves in Manchester, where she was asked to present bouquets to the winning high jump competitors.

If this remarkable lady can attribute any single thing to her long life it is the habit of daily exercise. As recently as last year she could frequently be seen pushing her shopping trolley into the town centre along Norwich Road and was a regular member of the exercise classes in the Fayre Green lounge.