IT is the obvious teenagers’ job, allowing them to scrape together enough money each week to buy a bag of sweets and a couple of magazines.

But a great-grandfather is proving that you do not have to be young to have a paper round – just young at heart.

Bill Alexander has been delivering newspapers to houses in Barton-on-Sea for the past 12 years – and despite being 84 years old, the sprightly pensioner is showing no signs of slowing up.

Each week he sets off from his house in Selwood Way and spends more than two hours posting 160 copies of the Daily Echo’s sister paper the New Forest Post through the letterboxes of his neighbours.

The paper round used to be his son Ben’s part-time job until he gave it up when he was 14, so Bill took it on.

That was 12 years ago. Bill, a former civil servant with the Department of Health and Social Security, said: “I’ve been doing the paper round for years now.

“I used to help Ben out when he did it, and when he decided to stop doing it I just carried it on.

“It’s a good excuse to get out and about and get some exercise.

“At one point I was actually doing two paper rounds.

“It’s not about the money, which is next to nothing really.

“It’s about getting out in the fresh air, getting exercise and seeing people on my way round.”

Bill, who has two sons, two grandchildren and a great-grandson, said the only time he misses his paper round is if he’s ill – in which case his wife Barbara, 66, takes on the duties.

John Moreton, deputy director of Age Concern Hampshire, said Bill was “an example to us all”.

He added: “It’s absolutely magnificent – he’s obviously doing it because he enjoys it and likes the contacts that he makes.

“It’s always nice to see people with a zest for life.

“I am sure he also has a very positive impact on the people he delivers to.”

• Bill is our latest golden oldie to feature in the Daily Echo after we revealed that the country’s oldest McDonald’s worker, Neville Green, was serving customers at Hedge End at the age of 83.

We want to hear of any golden oldies who are working in your community – contact our reporter Will Carson on 023 8042 4501.