A 94-year-old great-grandmother became so fed up with waiting for her bins to be collected during a strike she wheeled her garden waste two miles to the tip herself.

Nonagenarian Nan Miller took matters into her own hands after growing frustrated at waiting for three weeks for her bin to be collected.

Despite suffering from a heart condition, Ms Miller, from Canterbury in Kent, trekked for more than an hour to her nearest recycling centre amid strikes by GMB refuse workers.

Luckily, the great-grandmother of two was eventually pitied by a passerby who spotted her struggling with her bin and offered to take her the rest of the way.

The retired French interpreter had warned Canterbury City Council that if her green bin remained unemptied by Friday afternoon, she would begrudgingly wheel it to the tip herself.

Strikes were launched by members of the GMB union working for Canenco, the waste contractor employed by the city council, at the beginning of this month.

Three pay-rise offers have so far been rejected, with union bosses warned not to expect a fourth.

Although non-GMB members have still been working throughout this period, rushing around to ensure household waste is collected, recycling and garden waste collections have been more limited.

Despite paying an extra £47.25 a year on top of council tax to have her garden waste collected, Ms Miller grew slowly exasperated after watching her bin slowly fill up over the past three weeks.

Ahead of her march to the tip, she said: "If they think they can get away with it, well I’m jolly well going to show them that they can’t."

"I’m fed up to the back teeth – which are my own. My bin needs emptying so I’m going to push it to the tip myself."

"They think: ‘Oh well, it can wait’. But, I’m sorry, I’ve given up waiting."

"It’s going to put a strain on me, of course, but my roots are in the north and we are a determined people – don’t play with me."

Ms Miller has suffered two cardiac arrests and was due to visit the hospital for an appointment regarding a blood clot when she set out on her journey to the tip.

True to her word, after hearing nothing from the council by Friday afternoon, she began wrestling her bin amidst blustery conditions along narrow pavements towards the recycling centre.

She would occasionally dangle a thumb towards the road in an attempt to cut her journey short by hailing a ride in a passing van or lorry, grumbling: "This is a real pain in the neck..."

"And I’ve got a real pain in my neck – I’m not just doing this for fun."

"I’ve already walked three times as far as I did when I had to do this years ago and I thought I was more than old enough to be doing it then."

But as she walked Ms Miller realised she wouldn't be able to make it to the recycling centre before it shut.

Fortunately, the sympathetic driver of a passing Range Rover stopped to give her a ride for the final stretch of the journey.

The driver, Nadine Fleming, said: "I saw her struggling along the road with a wheelie bin in one hand and walking stick in the other and it broke my heart."

"So I pulled over and we put the bin in the back."

Though the tip was already shut when they arrived, another good samaritan, Taylor Nickolson, who works at the Tyre Pros shop just around the corner from the tip, offered to empty Ms Miller’s garden bin into his own and give her a lift home afterwards.

A spokesman for Canterbury City Council later said they had tried to contact Ms Miller on the afternoon of her trek to the tip to tell her her bins would be emptied the following day.

The spokesman said: "We share Mrs Miller's frustration about her garden bin and are sorry she felt that she had no option other than to wheel her bin down to Vauxhall Road."

"On Friday afternoon we rang on a number of occasions and also emailed her to say that Canenco had catch-up crews working and would be returning to her on Saturday, but unfortunately there was no answer to any of this communication."

"Despite the ongoing strike action by GMB members, crews have been out working hard, getting to as many bins as possible. "

"This includes the full black bin service every day and good numbers of garden bins."

The council has now finally reached a pay agreement with Unison members of the Canenco workforce of £14.45 an hour for drivers (up £1.87 an hour, a 14.9% increase) and £11.61 for loaders (up 95p an hour, an 8.9% increase).

The council spokesman added: "We would urge GMB members to accept the deal that remains on the table and end their strike."