Category Archives: Blogs

Ageing American film stars started the cosmetic surgery craze for eradicating the signs of ageing back in the 1950’s, now its commonplace. British women held back, the biggest deterrent was public opinion which considered signs of ageing should be stoically accepted, vanity discouraged, looks unimportant and even correcting birthmarks or defects as “meddling with nature”. What really mattered was “inner beauty”.

First I was a Brownie in Somerset, then a Brownie ( Sprite) and GirlGuide (Daffodil) when we moved house to Gloucestershire. Guiding helped instil in me the importance of a healthy lifestyle – and leadership – and confidence in oneself. I had a strict upbringing and my father kept me like a coiled spring under his thumb. Guiding released that spring. I had so much energy – I still do – and I was able to channel it into leadership and motivating people. It gave me the guidelines for my life and career.

The baby boomers, those people born immediately after the war have finally grown up and joined the ranks of the over 60’s.. Generally speaking, older adults in the UK today are healthier, have experience, knowledge, and more disposable income than previous generations. Personally I feel comfortable with my maturity and I’ve finally come to accepting myself – warts and all. I regard this time of life as primetime, a bonus. Not all would agree. Within the 60+ group there appears a division, the majority plan positively for the future, but a minority still feel extremely negative about it.

When I picked up my Bus Pass after celebrating my 60th birthday, I remember reflecting over the previous 60 years, my youth and my middle age, mostly with gratitude, but also with a few regrets. I also remembered looking forward, with hope and optimism to the millennium and to my future as an older woman, in what I hoped would be my primetime. The year was 2000 and I hoped the years to follow would have the potential of being an exciting and challenging time for mature women like me in the UK. I considered myself fortunate to be living at a time in history when finally women’s talents and strengths were receiving recognition and reward and that my generation of women had the opportunity to change the perception of growing older for generations of younger women to follow.

I was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 47. I was terrified. I was the BBC’s Green Goddess, the nation’s gym mistress. I felt desperately alone. John and I had separated a year before. I was on the crest of a wave with my campaign on BBC Breakfast: ‘Get Britain Fit’. Cancer happens to other people, we all know that. My thought at that moment was, ‘I don’t want my life to stop. I’ve got so much more I want to do. And the biggest thing at that moment was, ‘I want to see my boys with partners and I want to see some grandchildren.’