All posts tagged: older

Fiona on The Traitors is a reminder to never underestimate an older woman

Fiona on The Traitors is a reminder to never underestimate an older woman

Published by Daniella Wilson

In Wales, adoring neighbours call her “lovely Fiona”. She’s the dotty (her word) 61-year-old who works for local government, runs a dementia-friendly lunch club and has a penchant for floral dresses. The kind of woman you’d share intimate secrets with minutes after meeting. You’d trust her to look after your house, your keys, your PIN number, your cat. Later, you’d dismiss her lightly with words like nice, harmless, or worse, “lovely”. And those lazy assumptions are just what the cardigan-clad Butcher of Swansea, as I call her, is banking on. As she said when she introduced herself on The Traitors, “People always underestimate women of a certain age.” And how. The moment Fiona was revealed as the secret traitor, my WhatsApp lit up with messages of “I knew it” quicker than you can say HRT. How did my fellow fiftysomething mates know? Well, we understand that society’s cloak of invisibility, which gets thrown over women of our age, is the secret weapon that may well gift Fiona, Britain’s friendliest serial killer, that £120,000 pot of …

Tell us: are you a UK centenarian or do you know one?

Tell us: are you a UK centenarian or do you know one?

Published by Sam Flores

The number of centenarians (aged 100 years and over) in the UK has doubled from 8,300 in 2004 to 16,600 in 2024, according to the Office for National Statistics. Between 2004 and 2024, the number of male centenarians has tripled from 910 to 3,100. During the same period, the number of female centenarians almost doubled from 7,400 to 13,600. We would like to hear from centenarians, their family or friends, about what it has been like to bear witness to the past century’s seismic events and changes. Looking back, what advice would you give to your younger self? What is your secret to a long life? Let us know. Share your experience Share your experience of being a centenarian in this form.  Your responses, which can be anonymous, are secure as the form is encrypted and only the Guardian has access to your contributions. We will only use the data you provide us for the purpose of the feature and we will delete any personal data when we no longer require it for this purpose. …

Prioritise quality of life over prolonging it for elderly, Chris Whitty tells medics

Published by Sam Flores

England’s chief medical officer, Prof Chris Whitty, has called for a cultural shift in medicine away from maximising lifespan and towards improving quality of life in old age, arguing that sometimes this means “less medicine, not more”. Speaking before the publication of his 2023 annual report, which this year focuses on health in an ageing society, Whitty said doctors needed to have more realistic conversations with patients about the risk of some treatments extending life at the expense of quality of life and independence. “Modern medicine is amazing at keeping people alive and extending life … and this for some people is exactly the right thing to do,” he said. “But I think the question should be what do people want themselves, and, particularly if treatments have significant side-effects, you’re always going to have a trade-off.” He also urged families not to shy away from conversations with older relatives about health choices such as the extent to which they would want medical interventions to be escalated in an emergency. These discussions could be mediated by …