Design expert and television personality Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen says the UK needs to revoutionise its attitude to growing old to avoid a ‘tsunami of health problems.’
The former Changing Rooms host and Strictly Come Dancing contestant said unless people ‘take responsibility for their own health’ the country will be crippled by a burgeoning number of people with expensive to treat age related health problems.
The flamboyant 59-year-old father of two who lives in Gloucestershire said: “Speaking as an old person it boils down to the fact that it is down to us. We have a tsunami coming of older people with ill health needing care. We need to look after us. Don’t drink too much, don’t smoke, take more exercise and broaden our horizons. If we all did that for ourselves there would be no tsunami. No government can fix this. Change has to come from within you.”
He added ageing well is not just about healthy living but also about ‘being brave’ and ‘having fun’.
He said: “ I am now designing a stair lift for my house with a mini bar attached so that if it gets stuck halfway up the stairs I won’t worry about becoming dehydrated. You don’t want to sit around like a cat lady surrounded by copies of People’s Friend magazine and cat medicine. Make sure you put stuff away. I can’t bear it. You need to change your world and by talking about this change I can perhaps change some other older person’s version of themselves when they read your article in the Sunday Express.”
The outspoken celebrity added: “I’ve got about 20 years left of life. I want 20 years of fun. I am not spending 20 years in last year’s couture – get rid of it. Why? We are getting this wrong. We need to focus on how lovely something is, not how young something is. You don’t need a tight face. My knees are beginning to give out, but I’m not giving up on my Cuban heels – even if I have to wear them on a pair of slippers.
“It all boils down to attitude. Either throw your arms open to beige or just keep on dancing. If you can’t dance like you used to, learn a new dance. Do it and dance. Don’t do it and shuffle. We have to be realistic about our lives and our situation. Things were fine when you were in your 30’s but they are not fine at 60, but it’s about not giving in. Older people need to step up and know we cannot apply the judgements of youth to the way we are. As we boomers were growing up we were all anticipating being punk rockers, being Sid Vicious – now we are old we are all dangly and baggy, us boys have breasts. We have to be more realistic and forget the idea of being Apollo. Yes you will look baggy but you don’t need to shuffle into oblivion in your life. Keep changing. Never stop being brave – I’ve never felt 60, 40 or 18. I’m still surprised by my age. The worst thing that mankind came up with is numbers. Do we need to know what time it is? How old we are? Get rid of numbers!”
Mr Llewelyn-Bowen, who has now turned his hand to designing for Rangeford – a company which runs luxury retirement villages across the UK – added: “People are paying from resources that they don’t need, living in huge houses that they can’t afford to live in properly, in houses they can’t afford to heat – as you get older you need to look at your space and how things work. I wanted to work with Rangeford as soon as I found out about it. I genuinely feel these retirement homes will make a difference to the lives of older people. It’s about how we create space and about a way of living for all of us who want to be as independent as possible in older age rather than being left out on my own in a community.”
And he added: “We need to find a new word for retirement – previous generations worked so physically hard that retirement was different. Now what are we retiring from? Mostly we are retiring from sitting behind a computer screen and when you stop you tend to be more physically active. Retirement is now more about reincarnation and it is fundamentally about looking at your life and doing it in a different way. People need to really look at what their world needs to become to be who they need to become.”