Joyce Elliott took in Jessie after seeing her at an animal rescue shelter in 1981 and has looked after her ever since.

Jessie was just four months old back then, making her 28 years old now – or 129 in cat years.

The 57-year-old, a nurse at the cancer unit at Newcastle's Freeman Hospital, said: "Despite her age, she's still in good health. "Now we want to know whether she could be the oldest cat in Britain, if not the world.

Mrs Elliott, a grandmother of two, said: "I recently took her to the vet to see what her health was like, and she was in pretty good shape, apart from high blood pressure.

"She's got a great life, though. She spends most of the day in the conservatory sleeping because it's warm, then, at night, she likes to climb on to the bottom of the bed and go to sleep there.

"Over the last couple of years, she's started to wake up in the middle of the night crying. I think it's because she wants to know where I am.

She could wake my husband up – and it's even worse if he's been working a long shift – so it means I've got to get up, pick her up, then wrap her in my dressing gown to go to sleep. She likes it because it's got my scent on it."

Mrs Elliott, who has two other cats, said there was no secret formula for Jessie's long life.

"She just eats normal cat food, sometimes packets of meat and sometimes dry biscuits," she said.