word retirement it’s a false goal if you
look in the English Oxford Dictionary
for the definition of retirement you’re
told it’s rest rest in bed seclusion
removal from action and danger and of
course giving up your job or your
professional activity
well maybe six or seven years after
retirement some 30 years ago you were
dead but now we live 30 or 40 years
after we retire is that going to be
lying down is it going to be in
seclusion somehow the word retirement is
synonymous with I’ve done it I’m now
going to rest
I’m going to take a break but even worse
it’s also thought that it’s good for our
health well nothing could be further
from the truth it is not good for our
mental or our physical health I often
get quite annoyed when people say to me
I’m going to take the lift not the
stairs because you know I’m getting old
why can’t we have a new name why can’t
we have a name that indicates that we’re
vibrant we’re active we have purposeful
activity so please could you think about
a new name for me some two years ago
when I was on holiday I was browsing in
a bookshop I came across a book about a
woman called Clare Boothe Luce she was
an American diplomat when this book was
written she was 80 years of age just
inside the front
cover this woman said I will be
ambitious until the day I die when you
flick through the pages you got a sense
of a truly vibrant woman who was really
living her life she was still in paid
work she was doing voluntary work now
contrast that with mr. Wright mr. Wright
was a friend and colleague of my father
they both worked in the coop warehouse
mr. Wright joined the coop at 16 he was
going to retire at 65
they gave him his gold watch and I was
talking to him over the fence about two
weeks after he retired I said mr. Wright
what are you going to do he looked
rather soulful and down and then almost
in tears he said to me I have no job I
am waiting to die I was 16 of course I
thought I was immortal I was really more
concerned about my own levels the mr.
Wright and his problems I wasn’t really
very sympathetic mr. Wright was dead by
17 he had no purposeful work he had
nothing to live for now work is defined
in the dictionary as purposeful activity
it could be paid could be unpaid it
might be full or part-time or
self-employment you might be caring for
someone you may be a homemaker bringing
up a family you may be doing voluntary
activities all of these things are
social good and individual good they are
purposeful activity I want that work
be good work I’m not talking about bad
work and there is quite a lot of bad
work around I’m talking about work where
you feel valued where you listen to
where you’re given a sense of control so
I have to tell you about my underground
train driver this was when I was
national director for health and work
and I thought that some people had very
boring jobs so I said can I go and join
someone who’s driving an underground
train so I joined my driver at Baker
Street tube station it was the early
shift 5:00 a.m. in the morning we sat
together in his little cabin well I got
pretty bored we went up and down the
Bakerloo line so I said you know could
we do the Jubilee Line and and this is
an awfully early shift and wouldn’t it
be good for your family if you could
have the afternoon shift and then I said
course if your employer was a good
employer you could have a week above
ground at the barriers talking to people
and then three weeks underground in this
really dark tunnel well he was very
happy to drop me off well when he
dropped me off what he did it was
wonderful he banged on his reel and said
looking fairly cross with me this is my
train nothing happens here but that I
give the orders I’m responsible for the
safety of the people behind me I’ve got
good mates I don’t want the Metropolitan
Life but I don’t want a later shift
we’ve got good occupational house I’m
reasonably well paid more or less he was
saying go away
now I thought my train driver would be
in that job until he was in his sixties
until he was going to retire but then
what had we thought about him having new
skills did he have an educational need
or was he going to sit lie down and
shrivel this was a man with purposeful
activity now for most of you in the
audience this will not be a problem you
will have thought about this transition
period and what can happen afterwards
but there are thousands and thousands of
people out there who are not in the sort
of jobs where they have thought about
this I believe if someone is mentally
and physically able if they have
aspirations if they have hidden
ambitions they should be able to do this
at whatever time of life they are indeed
encouraging my train driver to slow down
to sit down take more rest is actually
bad for his health just to concentrate
on one part of health just let us think
about physical activity we now know that
physical activity is very related
strongly correlated to your overall
health
in fact it’s bad for you to really just
rest and sleep and do nothing else and
we now know there is a medical condition
called frailty if you’re frail you sit
more when you walk you walk far more
slowly your grip strength gets worse you
feel exhausted
and you lose weight now that condition
of frailty you might think happens oh
well after when you’re 80 but let me
tell you there is good evidence now this
happens to people in their fifties and
their sixties and it is correlated with
your ability to be in work so we don’t
want to be encouraging people to do too
much sitting which brings me to my story
from this summer I was on holiday in
Spain on a walking holiday um and it had
been rather wet and damp we were coming
down the mountain and I fell and I
fractured my left leg fortunately just
the small bone in my left leg I was put
in a nice boot with a rocker and I could
walk pretty fast but all my friends were
highly protective Carol I think you
should sit down let us make you a cup of
tea it would really be better if you had
a car to go there and then one friend
said well why don’t you take two months
off work it’ll help you recover as if
just resting was going to help me
recover indeed the opposite is true if
you want a bone to heal you have to give
it some messages you have to give it a
little bit of tension so walking was
very good for me and I did walk and two
weeks after my accident then I was able
to join in the Cambridge Chariots of
Fire race I just did fast walking now
I’m really pleased to say that a light
bulb has gone on in Whitehall the
government really gets this connection
and is concerned about it so just before
Christmas there was a very good report
published which linked active aging to
our musculoskeletal system and being
physically active with some pretty good
advice about what we might do and I’m
really delighted
that our charities for example Age
Concern are right behind this movement
but what would I like to eliminate from
the way we think about and indeed treat
older people well I want to eliminate
our being overprotective you know what
we say is well you might trip or fall if
you go out you might break your leg so
why not sit at home we make them less
self-confident they know that they’re
balanced this is just good we all know
our balance isn’t as good as we get
older but rather than be hugely
protective so they don’t go and meet
their friends for coffee they don’t go
to the church hall to have afternoon tea
they don’t go and do their shopping why
don’t we help them do things that
improve their balance you can clean your
teeth standing on one foot that’s very
good for your balance and surely it is
for the social good and indeed it would
cost less money if we concentrated on
being positive rather the leaving people
in their home secluded and if you’re
secluded you become lonely and I don’t
need to tell you that loneliness is now
a national disease the other thing I
really get upset about is going into a
care home now some care homes are very
good but I’ve been into too many when
you go in and you see people just
sitting all around the room they’re not
talking to each other some of them are
just looking straight ahead some are
looking at the television but there’s no
purposeful activity now why aren’t they
on the floor doing a movement Plus why
aren’t they going out for a walk or what
about a bit of yoga or
simple artists why isn’t there some
purpose now my own life has had many
episodes of purposeful activity and many
of them have been after the age of 50
indeed many of the best things have been
after the age of 50 I would describe
myself as a late developer I became
national director for health and work at
the age of 66 and had a wonderful
challenge but earlier in my life I
didn’t have enough confidence I wasn’t a
good enough risk-taker
there were periods when I was pretty
static but things did develop after the
age of 50 and I talked about this when I
did Desert Island Discs and I was
immensely moved by the number of people
who either wrote me emails or letters
and told me their stories their stories
of how they wanted to do things after 50
and 60 their aspirations their ambitions
their hopes
it was truly moving just to give you an
example of a really good message that I
received was from a woman who said well
my husband had a very good career and
he’s thinking of taking early retirement
I took some time off with the children
got a part-time job then a full-time job
and now it’s my time I want a career I
might live to be a hundred so I told him
I’m just starting
we often inside do not feel confident
when we go for jobs at this age will
they regard me as old incapable not
mature
will I be resilient enough why can’t
they see us as experienced capable
people who will do the job
surely that should be possible I’m going
to be flippant for a moment because I
want to talk about clothes and shoes now
when you get to my age should you want
to buy fashionable clothes I can’t tell
you it’s difficult what they would like
to do is to put us into rather long
skirts the colours are often drab and
there’s a lot of sort of pale floral
colors and it gets worse
when you want a pair of jeans really you
shouldn’t be wanting jeans at this age
what about shoes I can’t wear those very
big heels but I could wear elegant pumps
with a heel that is suitable for me
feeling a really competent woman at the
age I am why do these retailers not see
us as a market why are we not encouraged
to go into those shops like the young I
wish that that could happen so I talk to
you about retirement I taught you about
how its defined that you will sit that
you will lie down that you’ll be
secluded removed from the world I don’t
want that I want anyone and everyone of
that age to feel that they have purpose
and that they can live life to the full
you often feel there is a deadness
living I hope to be ambitious until the
day I die I will not be part of the Living Dead