TOM Jones, 83, and wife Pauline, 82, insist that their daily visits to the fast-food chain have helped them remained slim and fit.

The couple walk 2.5 miles from their home every day to make their visit to their favourite McDonald’s chain location in Southgate Street, Bath.

Pauline said: "We walk 2.5 miles every day to get here.

"We pop in for a coffee at 8.30am and then go to look round the shops. At 10ish we come back for what we call a snack.”

Tom said: "We come in here seven days a week, every day.

"Other than when we've been on holiday we haven't missed a day in 23 years.”

Tom's regular feast consists of a Big Mac while Pauline samples more of the menu's variety depending on her mood.

Pauline, said: "We like coming back here every single day because of the friendliness.

"The staff is always so helpful - we even feel like part of the building - part of the furniture. We always feel as though they know who we are and they're so kind.

"Mind you I always say thank you, and I think that goes a long way. It's like a second home to us.

"We like it in the mornings when it isn't so busy as it's a bit hectic at dinner time. We are not pub people and we value the community we find at McDonald's."

Tom added that the perception that much of the chain's food can lead to people being overweight - "is wrong."

Tom, said: "I just want to say that all this nonsense about McDonald's making you fat is rubbish. Look at us!"

However, Tom stressed that they also remained slim and fit in their eighties because of the exercise they tried to include in their daily routine.

Paul Pearson, who owns and operates the Southgate Street chain invited Tom and Pauline to the cutting of a cake on Wednesday 7th November to mark the Southgate branch's 35th birthday.

Paul said: "I've always had a love of Bath and I've always had a toe in the city. It's a great honour to be the franchise here.

"It's a beautiful city, a beautiful place to work and it had a great sense of community. It's not too big and not too small."

He said Tom and Pauline were the perfect symbols of the difference McDonald’s could make in a community.