Let’s all roll like Stone
whe
p
WE had a fire drill at work on Tuesday which meant walking down 22 flights of stairs.
By the time I got to the bottom my legs were shaking so much I thought I was going to fall over.
And when I got home that evening I did. I dropped my keys, squatted down to get them, couldn’t stand up again and toppled over.
No one saw me, thank God, but I was mortified.
I am a 55- year- old woman with 85-year-old legs – because I spend eight hours a day sitting on my bum staring at a computer screen.
And it’s finally dawned on me that a weekend stroll round Sainsbury’s is not going to give me thighs of steel.
I need to take a stand against my sedentary lifestyle and get the old pins back in shape.
And what better inspiration could there be than gorgeous 61- year- old Sharon Stone.
She’s been flashing her long lallies in a magazine article about beauty and anti-ageing.
Sharon nearly died from a stroke when she was in her 40s and only then started focusing on her health. Now she feels and
THE Royal Britishbitih Legion has launched its annual Poppy Appeal and this year’s Remembrance Day will mean more to me than ever.
In June I was privileged to join 300 veterans of D-day on the Legion’s 75th anniversary cruise to Normandy. Watching those proud old soldiers laying poppies for their fallen comrades at the Cross of
Sacrifice in Bayeux Cemetery, is something I will never forget.
Helping launch this year’s appeal was Catalina Bateman, looks better than ever. She has barely changed since that iconic leg-uncrossing scene in 1992 thriller Basic Instinct.
Although she did remember to put her knickers on this time.
Unfit types like me could also be inspired by standing- up GP appointments now being trialled by doctors in the Midlands, where patients will only be told to take a seat if they look in real need.
“Doctors often neglect their own health,” said the medic leading the pilot.
“We need to find ways of getting GPS on their feet and moving more often. Standing consultations could help them and highlight to patients the importance of reduced sitting time.”
GPS can also send their patients to dance classes and sports clubs too, thanks to a £5million scheme designed to cut drugs prescribing.
And I’ve decided to take up ballet. Because I recently met TV star Angela Rippon, 75, who’s Ambassador of Silver Swans – Royal Ballet- run classes for over-50s.
She told me a friend of 85 had recently started going and is already so strong on her pins “she can put her knickers on without having to sit down”.
A conversation I recalled with a grimace as I was getting dressed on Wednesday morning.
96, below, who still has the red cotton poppy given to her in 1927 by her father Bernard. He was wounded at the Somme in the First World War and went on to serve at Dunkirk in 1939.
The Royal British Legion adopted the poppy emblem in 1921 and sold nine million that year, raising £106,000 for veterans. Last year 40million were sold, raising £50million. Please support this year’s appeal and help them to raise even more. Because we must never forget.