Meet Britain's oldest paper girl who delivers Southampton's Daily Echo

The grandmother gets up at 5am to do her round six days a week, and aims to carry on until she’s 90.

She took over the paper round from her grandchildren when they started going to college about 10 years ago and says it helps keep her fit and healthy.

And over the years she’s made more than 50,000 deliveries and cycled at least 5,000 miles.

The pensioner cycles the whole route on her own, delivering the Daily Echo to 32 houses come rain or shine, and has even carried on in the snow.

Pauline has two children aged 55 and 52 and six grandchildren aged between 17 and 27 but still feels young enough to get back on her bike - which is 40 years old itself - six days a week.

The retired newsagent from Southampton said: “I get up at five o’clock every day. I love it and I find it keeps me fit. I start at half six and it’s about a mile and a half.

“I deliver to 32 houses but they don’t all get the paper on the same day. Some just get it three days a week.

“I cycle every day, I always cycle and I used to do lots of cycling when I was younger. I once rode 100 miles in a week.

“I let them keep the money, because then it’s like pocket money for them. When I was doing it I was thinking I could do that for them.

“The customers at the end of the year send me Christmas cards and they say ‘you’re the best news deliverer because you always deliver it early in the morning’. A lot of them are older people who like to read the paper when they have their breakfast."

Pauline Bridge, Southampton. Believed to be Britain's oldest paper girl. Picture: Solent News & Photo Agency

Her husband, 80, also completes a daily route, but he walks and they take different directions.

Pauline said: “He does a round under protest, but I tell him it’s good for him. He goes one way and I go the other.”

Daughter Lisa Huggett, 52, said she was ‘proud’ of her mum and that she plans to keep going until she is 90.

She said: “Mum keeps fit by doing loads of cycling and she always goes out, in snow, in rain, whatever the weather.

“You’d think she would wait until a bit later on when it stopped snowing or raining, but no, she still gets up at five o’clock.

“She would say ‘people are waiting for their papers’, she’s serious about it.

“She said she’s going to keep going until she’s 90.”

Lisa’s husband Brian, 53, gets the job of fixing Pauline’s punctured tyres at 6am, so it’s handy that they only live over the road from each other.

Pauline’s youngest granddaughter Megan, 17, believes her nan could be Britain’s oldest paper girl.

She said: "I can’t see other people her age doing what she does."

“She gets up so early every day and delivers the Echo Monday to Saturday without fail, in all weather conditions.

“Her customers love her and she gets so many Christmas cards from them.

“I would just like to say how dedicated she is and how she always puts 100 per cent effort in, no matter what she does.

“She is an amazing mum and grandma and we are all very proud of her.

“We can’t believe what she is still achieving despite her age and she puts us youngsters to shame.”

Her brother, Charles Giles, said: “She is a grandma with six grandchildren who she devotes her help and loving care to.

“My sister is a total credit and a top drawer person too.”