ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

An 80-year-old train cleaner who helps to service between 18 and 26 train carriages a night claims he loves his job - and has no plans to retire just yet.

William Gwyn Thomas has been cleaning trains at Carmarthen station for 25 years. He works shifts until the early hours of the morning, operating as part of a team charged with cleaning the entire train carriage from the cabs and toilets to the tables and floors.

He says the worst shifts are on Saturdays when the toilets can be "challenging". However, he takes it all in his stride. "Someone has to get the train looking nice for customers again," said Thomas.

He is not alone in relishing his long-standing cleaning job. In February this year, 81-year-old Nora Jones was reported to have notched up 50 years as a pub cleaner.

The Manchester woman has been working at Joseph Holt's Waggon & Horses in Gorton since 1977. And like Thomas, she has no intention of retiring any time soon and claims she has never called in sick during her long years of service.

In November 2020, a Romanian woman was named by the World Record Academy as being the Oldest Working Cleaning Lady. Eighty-four-year old Sofia Chi?oran -known as Grandma Sofia locally - was employed cleaning the classrooms of a kindergarten in Leurda village.

And just a few months before this in February 2020, the UK's 96-year-old Marjorie Rose could have given her a run for her money. Dubbed one of Britain's oldest cleaners, Rose was back working at her job at The Mall in Maidstone, Kent, just two months after breaking her hip in a fall.