A NORTH WALES man, declared dead in 1936 after a major motorcycle accident, celebrated his 106th birthday last Friday.

In 1936, Sam Ledward, originally from Winsford in Cheshire, was thrown from his 500cc Triumph, suffering head injuries. In his own words:

'I bought it off a farmer. One of his sons had come to grief on it.'

'I just tuned it up and put a new rear tyre on it. I thought the front tyre would be okay but it wasn't. It bust.'

So deep was his coma that he was declared dead and taken to the mortuary before a hospital porter noticed his 'corpse' move.

'They had to do a U-turn with me and took me back to the hospital ward.'

He came to five days later.

Speaking 76 years on, Mr. Ledward said:

'My first recollection of anything was seeing someone stood round the bed and me knocking something out of someone's hand. I had knocked a feeding cup out of a nurse's hand.'

'I've had a good life since.'

When asked to explain the secret of his long life, he said: 'Remember that you can’t have it all; live clean and play fair.'