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Real record breaker

Denise Evans
6/ 3/2008

A SALFORD man with Down’s syndrome has reached a record-breaking age which could see him crowned the oldest person in the country with the condition.

Laurence Teers has managed to outlive all six of his siblings and is showing no signs of slowing down as he celebrated his 71st birthday yesterday (Wednesday, March 5).

Laurence, who lives with his niece Margaret Galliano, in Vicarage Close, Hope, is believed to be the UK’s oldest person with Down’s syndrome and possibly even the oldest person with the syndrome in the world.

Sufferers used to have a relatively low life expectancy but nowadays many people with the condition live well into adulthood, with an average life expectancy of around 60 years.

About one person in every 1,000 is born with the syndrome, a genetic condition caused by the presence of an extra chromosome.

Apart from a few trips to a nursing home for some respite care a few times a month, Laurence is fit and healthy with only some slight arthritis in his knees.

His niece and full time carer Margaret said: "Laurence likes to dance and in the home last week some heavy metal music came on the player so he started to jump up and down to the music like people do to that sort of music."

Margaret, 51, has been Laurence’s full-time carer at her home for the past 10 years after promising her late mum - Laurence’s sister, Margaret Rogers - she would look after him so that he did not have to go into a nursing home.

When asked about the secret to her uncle’s extraordinary milestone, Margaret said: "My mum always used to say that he was always well looked after. Maybe that’s part of why he has lived so long.

"He has plenty of friends within the family and is a very pleasant man."

Along with Margaret, who died almost three years ago, Laurence had four other sisters, Nora Drake, Sally Hobson, Marjory Harter and Gladys Delve and one brother, Donald Teers.

Margaret plans to contact Guinness World Records to register Laurence’s claim. The previous holder of the title of oldest Down’s sufferer in the world was Peter Davison, from Sunderland, who died in December, aged 68.

Margaret added: "We are all really proud of him, my mum especially would be very proud of him."

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