An 87-year-old grandmother has spent the past 40 years knitting and crocheting for premature babies.

Margaret Thompson, who lives in Newcastle, was born prematurely in 1938 at her family home in Bedlington.

At the time, her mother did not think she would survive and ran to find a priest to have her christened.

Despite the odds, Mrs Thompson went on to have a family of her own and has devoted much of her life to supporting other premature babies by making blankets.

Louise Burnyeat, home manager at Brunswick House, where Mrs Thompson now resides, said: "She has made so many blankets over the years that she has lost count, but it runs into many thousands."

Even though she is now registered blind in her right eye and partially sighted in her left, Mrs Thompson relies on her sense of touch

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