Feeling old? Maybe it’s time to take a Leith out of Prue’s book

Age is just a number. It’s a motto that is trotted out time and time again – usually by someone not in the first flushes of youth. But the evidence to support this belief is mounting up.

With the average life expectancy in the UK now 80.96 years and the advances in medicine, most of us can expect to lead a long and healthy life.

Attitudes to aging are changing too. Getting older is about looking and feeling your best whilst grabbing every experience you can. Women over 50 are now the biggest buyers of beauty products in the UK, inspired by brand ambassadors such as Dame Helen Mirren and Jane Fonda.

In fact, the 50-64 age group are the top spenders in everything from food and fashion to travel. And one in four women over 50 are dating.

We’re learning that getting older can be inspiring, inventive, and even, gasp, fun.

If you need any more convincing just look at this week’s cover star Prue Leith. When we spoke to the Bake Off judge she had just celebrated her 80th birthday with a champagne dinner.

No early night and Horlicks for her! The food critic, who has just published a vegetarian cook book with her niece, is busier than ever. No sooner had she finished filming Bake Off than she was off round the globe, first with her husband John to India, then on to Cambodia, where she was filming a Channel 4 documentary.

She tells us on pages 6&7: “I keep saying,‘right, now I will retire’, but somebody will come along and ask me to do something exciting.”

It’s this lust for life that is so inspiring, whatever age you are.