Three of the first post-war triplets to be born at Farnham Hospital are among the UK’s oldest as they’re all about to celebrate their 80th birthday.

A lot of candles will be blown next Wednesday as Evelyn Stone, George Sweetman and John Sweetman were all born on October 29, 1945.

George and John live in the Westcountry but Evelyn – known as Eve – has lived in Farnham all her life with her first home being a stone’s throw from her birthplace.

She said: “We lived next door at 42 Hale Road in what was part of the old nurses’ homes.

“My mother had two older children and we lived with my grandparents who had ten children of their own. My grandmother brought me up.

“My mother later married Walter Moseley, Farnham’s blacksmith who had the forge in Upper Church Lane, and two more children Michael and Rodney.”

After school at Park Primary and Farnham Heath End, Eve went to work at the age of 15, first in a bakery in what became The Woolmead and then one in Castle Street. From there she moved to Shepheard’s stores in Station Hill, where she remembers a very young Chris Shepheard, later to become well known for his Herald articles and for being director of the Rural Life Living Museum.

Eve married Peter Stone at St Andrew’s Church on October 26, 1968, and they had two children, Debbie and Steven. Debbie lives in Seaford, East Sussex, and Steven lives in Aldershot so Eve sees plenty of her grandchildren: Jessica, 18, and Amy who turns 21 on October 23. Eve and Peter moved to Badshot Lea in 2001.

She said: “Peter died just before Christmas last year, sadly, and it would have been our 57th wedding anniversary this month.

“John has never married but George married and now has 13 great-grandchildren.”

Eve has been in the press before. In a newspaper article in January 2022 she was dubbed ‘Super Gran’ after getting the all-clear from cancer, despite being given less than a year to live.

Eve had first been diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2012 but had made a good recovery thanks to treatment at St Luke’s Cancer Centre at the Royal Surrey Hospital. But it returned in 2016 and she was told that she had between nine and 12 months to live.

“It was devastating, I got very low,” she said.

She was offered palliative chemotherapy and just kept going, citing her family as keeping her going.

In the end she had 62 rounds of chemotherapy, all throughout the Covid lockdown, and in October 2021 she received the news – no cancer.

“It felt like a miracle,” she said. “I rang the ‘all clear’ bell at St Luke’s about 50 times!”

She added: “There will never be enough words to thank the most amazing staff at St Luke’s”.

Now, four years on, Eve is ready to celebrate again. Daughter Debbie is taking her to Seaford for the weekend and on her actual birthday she is planning to celebrate with neighbours.