I’ll celebrate hitting big six-oh this year but won’t slow down
This year I’ll be turning 60 along with a couple of my best friends. Some time ago we gave up on exchanging presents and opted to share experiences together instead.
So we’ve been looking at all the things we’d like to do as a group. I also want to do a cookery course in Italy, and to watch Scotland in the Women’s Football World Cup. Turning 60 gives us an excuse to do some of the things we’ve always wanted to, and we intend to celebrate in style.
Age is just a number to me, and I don’t feel at all old until I get up in the morning and it takes my legs a bit longer to wake up compared with the rest of my body. I’m fortunate in that my work means I’m active and usually surrounded by young people which helps keeps me young at heart and in mind.
I must admit I’m still hoping that someone will invent a facial iron, but I have a youthful outlook; I’ve got my granddaughters and my kids, and a career that is my passion and hobby.
I like to dress reasonably trendily – without appearing like mutton dressed as lamb – and I try to look after myself, though I do rattle a bit around breakfast time when I take joint pills, fish oil capsules and acidophilus for my gut. I think 60 is the new 40.
You only have to look to tennis to see how times are changing. Venus Williams is still playing at the top of the game at the age of 39.
For Andy, it’s early days as he returns to the tour and he’s testing out his hip after all the rehab since having surgery.
Only time will tell how it’s going to hold up. No one knows and we’re just keeping our fingers crossed. You also have to look at what impact continuing to play at the highest level is going to have on your later years. Some former players can hardly walk now, and that’s not a situation you want to put yourself into.
The life of the late, great actress June Whitfield, who worked into her 90s, was so inspiring and a reminder of the importance of having reasons to get up and get moving.
I see it with my mum and dad, now 84 and 87. They have so much to be excited about with Jamie and Andy’s tennis, and granddaughters who are into drama, and now great granddaughters too.
And I look at Billie Jean King who, at 75, is still pioneering and leading campaigns for equality.
I take my inspiration from them and I have no intention of slowing down.