Corrie Ken wants to be first man to reach 120 My cells are rejuvenating says star Bill
SOAP star Bill Roache aims to Corrie on living for decades – and be the first man to hit 120.
He has told how he recites a daily mantra as part of a process which he says rejuvenates his cells and leaves him feeling younger and healthier.
Bill, 86, already holds one record as the world’s longest-serving soap star, having played Ken Barlow in Coronation Street since 1960.
And with a clean bill of health, he can see no reason why he shouldn’t hit the milestone age.
He said in an exclusive interview: “Living to 120 is more than a possibility. The body was designed to go on forever as cells renew themselves. Ageing is a belief system. It’s not how many years you’ve clocked up, it’s the eating, drinking, smoking, bad thinking, stress, pollution. I’ve heard people say ‘I’ve got a new carpet, that’ll see me out’. That’s not the right mindset to have and down they go.”
The oldest man on record was Jiroemon Kimura, who was 116 when he died in Japan five years ago. Bill credits meditation and his mum’s genes for his good health. He added: “I say to myself every morning ‘As my cells renew themselves, they renew themselves with a younger, healthier, rejuvenated cell, therefore I’m getting younger, healthier.’ I know it’ll have some effect. Living to 100 is nothing – we should live way longer.”
Bill was speaking ahead of the release of his memoirs, in which he writes about being cleared of sex offences, losing his wife Sara in 2009 – and the “unbearable pain” as daughter Vanya, 50, died in March this year after a long illness.
Heartbroken Bill was in a car crash on his way to see Vanya before she died.
Bill, who also lost daughter Edwina when she was just 18 months old and has three other children, believes in the after life. And he added: “To not be able to say goodbye to Vanya was awful. But I take some comfort in now knowing she is in a better place and at peace.
“And When I say ‘I love you Vanya’, I know she hears it.”