Reaching 70 doesn’t mean we’re all decrepit
I agree wholeheartedly with your letters last week about the Government not treating the over-70s as normal people in this pandemic. But the Government is not the only guilty party.
I am 72, reasonably fit and young-hearted, and went to my GP surgery when I was 70 for my yearly review and check-up.
The nurse took my blood pressure and cholesterol level and said they were fine, but asked: ‘Have you thought of starting to take statins? Now you’ve reached 70, you’re at that vulnerable age.’
I had gone in there cheerful and upbeat, only to come out feeling old and decrepit.
Everything is geared towards the young, as if the older generation doesn’t matter any more. Just chuck us on the scrap heap.
K. Passman, York
While accepting that the Government has a difficult balance to strike between protecting the vulnerable and protecting the NHS, I must point out that treating the over-70s differently – a group that includes myself – appears to constitute age discrimination. Colin Kelvey, East Sussex
How arrogant and naive some people seem to be. Just because we lived through the Second World War does not mean we are not vulnerable. Our immune system is far weaker and this virus is strong, attacking old people. If you can’t live for a few months without seeing family, go out and see them. But if you catch the virus in doing so, and become an NHS burden, you could end up being dead. Then you will never be able see family when this is all over. W. Sentance, Tadley, Hampshire
The Government should tread very carefully if it intends to treat the over-70s with contempt. Our generation have long memories.
John Owen, London
I was interested in Peter Hitchens’s account of being told that when he reaches 70, he will no longer be eligible to give blood. I have a blood type shared by only two per cent of the population, and so I assume my donations are quite useful. I have now received an email saying that ‘in view of my age’ I could not donate. I am 72.
Hopefully no one will die as a result of the lack of the blood I could have given. The person responsible for my wellbeing is me, and I should be allowed to discharge that responsibility.
William Berry, Bristol
I have had type 2 diabetes for 24 years. I run and cycle and, when play resumes, will continue to stand as an umpire in one of the Kent cricket leagues. So perhaps Health Secretary Matt Hancock can explain what he’s got against me, simply because I’m 71? Mike Claughton,
Folkestone, Kent