A MELIN resident recently became the latest silver surfer at the age of 99 thanks to the housing association’s digital inclusion work.

Betty Jones, a resident in Victoria Court Abergavenny, now uses her tablet to view the world via Google Earth, years after travelling the world in her younger days.

Ms Jones benefitted from a new project at Victoria Court that will be rolled out to other sheltered schemes belonging to Melin.

This project is one part of a number of programmes designed to make sure social housing residents overcome barriers to technology.

Latest figures show that those living in social housing are still the least likely to use the internet, with only 54% having access at home, compared to only 17% of single pensioners living in social housing like Ms Jones are online.

She said: “I have travelled the world throughout my life so the chance to use Google Earth to visit those places again on my tablet has been great. I’ll never go abroad again but I can with my tablet.

"I can even do my crosswords on the tablet now. I encourage people of any age to give it a go.”

Digital Inclusion Officer at Melin, Louise Kingdon, said: “I constantly meet people in their 50s and 60s who believe they are too old to use technology, but Betty has proved them wrong.

"Betty has done amazingly well to start using the internet on her tablet."