OPINION:
OK, I’m going to say it even if nobody else will. Dick Van Dyke; we all thought he was dead. Just admit it.
But the Mary Poppins star, 97, is very much alive, mostly by the grace of God, after he lost control of his car and drove into
Is 90 the new 50? Look at Attenborough, Murdoch and Dick Van Dyke
By Judith Woods
Daily Telegraph UK·
5 mins to read
Model Iris Apfel. Photo / Supplied
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Sir David Attenborough communing with puffins on a Skomer cliff edge at the age of 96? TV gold, I tell you. And when 90-year-old great-grandmother Lyn Mitchell from Gloucestershire survived cancer treatment in 2021 and decided to raise money for Macmillan by doing a wing walk, I saluted her eight-minute flight on top of a biplane.
This was mostly because it was very brave but also because I wasn’t coming towards her in another byplane and hoping she wouldn’t crash into me. Extravagant risks are fine and dandy as long as they don’t affect other people; by your tenth decade that should be your guiding principle in all things. But older doesn’t necessarily mean wiser.
I remember just 48 hours after the late Duke of Edinburgh, then 97, escaped unhurt after a collision with a Ford Kia that overturned his Land Rover near the royals’ Sandringham estate, he was seen driving without a seatbelt.
The ensuing media furore was quite possibly what persuaded him to “voluntarily” surrender his driving licence three weeks later.
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The issue of safety remains pressing; earlier this week a coroner called for urgent changes to age limits for drivers after a woman on a mobility scooter was killed by a 95-year-old man who drove through a red light.
Kathleen Fancourt, 89, was killed when she was hit by the man’s car on a Chichester pedestrian crossing in September 2021. The driver has since pleaded guilty to dangerous driving but in a “prevention of future deaths” report, the senior coroner for West Sussex, Penelope Schofield, raised concerns about older drivers.
Currently, there’s no upper age limit for drivers. People over 70 are required to apply for a new licence every three years. Crazily, there are no medical checks; drivers are expected to certify their own ability at the wheel even though they may be oblivious to their own shortcomings.
A poll carried out recently by YouGov revealed that 70 per cent of people think older drivers should be forced to retake their tests from the age of 60 because of slower reaction times, while nearly half think drivers past a certain age should be banned altogether.
None of this is intended to rob older people of their agency, not at all. I would love to go the full fashion icon Iris Apfel, still modelling, still busting taboos aged 101.
Sex therapist Dr Ruth is still doling out X-rated advice aged 94. And when Tom Cruise recently skipped the Oscars to hang out with Michael Caine at his 90th birthday party, nobody wondered why.
Another Michael, now Lord Heseltine, celebrated his 90th a few days ago. Tall, unstooped, he still has his Tarzan mane of hair - and his marbles.
I’m tempted to say 90 is the new 60 but having witnessed Captain Sir Thomas Moore, 99, walking his way to his centenary in aid of charity during the pandemic and raising £32.8 million, it might well be the new 50. Either way it rocks. 100 per cent.
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Protect this man at all costshttps://t.co/R3E61WwSDF
— NBC New York (@NBCNewYork) March 23, 2023
Maybe a wartime childhood baked resilience into this generation. Life was tough. Scarcity a given. They just adapted, got through and got on. Bette Davis once observed that growing old was not for sissies. It’s not great for those struggling on state pensions and languishing on disgracefully long NHS lists either.
The UK now ranks 29th in a global chart of life expectancy, down from seventh place in 1952, and has performed worse over the past seven decades than all G7 countries except the United States, according to a new analysis published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, which points to socio-economic inequalities and poor health exacerbated by NHS failings.
On a personal level, those of us who want to become nimble nonagenarians need to invest in ourselves; eating well, staying active and remaining engaged. Why, at 97 some of us might feel perfectly able to drive.
But just because we can doesn’t mean we should. For those who seek thrills there’s always wing walking or, indeed, marriage.
