By Amy Taylor

A resident at The Fleet Care home in Dartmouth, Mo Pomfrey, celebrated her 100th birthday on

Saturday, and received 163 cards in response to a call from staff to help spread her birthday cheer.

When planning how to celebrate the milestone, staff at the care home decided to challenge themselves to get 100 cards for Mo, who was one of the first residents into the building when it opened back in April 2021.

Kimberly Heales, activities manager at The Fleet, said: “A social media post was created and very quickly the momentum was gaining pace. Within a day we had over 46 shares! Over the next week cards were pouring through our letter box from all over the country, we even had one from Memphis, USA!”

Mo received cards and gifts from local schools, businesses and other care homes who followed the Fleet Care Home Facebook page and wanted to help Mo celebrate her birthday.

Kimberly added: “We are blessed to have great connections to our immediate community and so thankful for all they do for us in return. Not only did people send in cards and gifts but we were approached by local businesses as they wanted to gift us things to make her day special.”

The cards were given to Mo during her birthday party, where staff planned a big surprise celebration with Mo’s family, including a balloon arch, custom-made cake, live music from Viki Philp and fancy dress.

Over the almost 3 years Mo has been there, she has become a huge part of The Fleet family and bonded with the head of Drake Floor, Viv Munslow, who was a driving force behind making Mo’s birthday extra special.

Viv says: “She’s a very lovely lady who has a wonderful sense of humour and not afraid to speak her mind even if it is to tell you off just for laughing.”

Kimberly says that from the start “it was very apparent that Mo was a right character, very dry sense of humor.”

She added: “Mo was visually moved by the kindness and generosity from all the staff and people in attendance. A very loud rendition of ‘happy birthday’ was sang and people raised a glass of something fizzy to Mo. She thanked everyone for attending and the efforts people had gone too and after that the party could commence with lots of singing and dancing... Mo’s surprise party celebrations were timed to perfection with her family arriving and then the big party reveal with confetti canons being fired from the staff.”

The day wouldn’t have been possible without the hard work of the staff at the car home.

Kimberly said: “We have an amazing team at The Fleet. Several of the staff came in on their day off to enjoy this day with Mo. It was certainly a day driven by love and genuine passion to make someone’s day truly special and memorable.”