Forever young

1:30pm Wednesday 6th August 2008

Things certainly ain't what they used to be when it comes to growing older.

Back in the 1970s, once women strayed past the age of 40 they all but disappeared in a haze of beige crimplene and blue hair rinses.

“He said ‘Put your hands on my knees and sit on my lap and I thought ‘Ooh, this is better than I dreamed!’

Gwynneth Cooke

Contrast that with today's senior citizens who stay fit and active well into their seventies, eighties or even nineties, and often look 20 years younger to boot.

Top actresses Joan Collins and Jane Fonda are aged 75 and 68 respectively, but neither are letting age stop them from looking beautiful and enjoying life to the full.

One of the best examples of these new go-for-it senior citizens is the Queen who, at 82, is a fearless horsewoman and enjoys nothing better than tramping across miles of countryside for a long walk with her dogs.

So what is the secret to staying fit, healthy and forever young at heart? We talked to three Oxfordshire women about how they do it Despite the fact that their combined ages total 150, Trish Wagstaff and Gwynneth Cooke are bursting with energy and love any type of challenge.

Jumping from an aeroplane at 13,000 feet, going into freefall at 120mph, then parachuting down to land at Weston-on-the-Green, near Bicester, was just a stroll in the park for the two ladies, as they explained At 76, widow Trish Wagstaff is something of a phenomenon. She literally jumped at the chance to go skydiving for Age Concern, and has just completed a nine-mile sponsored walk for Sobell House.

"I have got a very big garden to look after, at nearly three-quarters-of-an-acre. I do it al myself, except for the hedges, and end up walking six-and-a-half miles each week cutting the grass.

"One of my other regular forms of exercise is to go along on the WI evening walks, which are very nice.

"I belong to my local choir and I clean the church when it is my turn.

"I also Womble or, in other words, I litter-pick because I cannot bear the state of our roads with people throwing their rubbish everywhere.

"I set off with my little stick and yellow litter bag and pick it up.

"So many people say I am too old' and I can't do this' and I can't do that' but it's never too late to get on with life. I volunteered to do meals-on-wheels for 20 years and I was dishing out food to people who were younger than myself!

"A lot of it is in the mind but things have changed. Your 70 year old of today is your 50 year old of yesterday."

Grandmother of seven, Gwynneth 74, a former Barton Information Centre worker who lives in Kidlington, had always wanted to do a parachute jump.

To her delight, she got the chance to do one as part of a fund-raising initiative for Age Concern Oxfordshire.

"When you are going up in the aeroplane you have to sit astride a bench with your instructor who you are strapped to for the jump.

"He said Put your hands on my knees and sit on my lap and I thought Ooh, this is better than I dreamed!' "Once you fall out of the plane, you find yourself upside down with your feet in the air until eventually you stabilise face down.

"We were travelling at 120mph and it was like being in a gale force wind.

"Lots of people had warned me that I'd get an awful jerk when the parachute opened but I joked I'll get a worse jerk if it doesn't!' "When I told my friends and family I was going to do the jump, they all thought I had lost it.

"My daughter Sylvia, who I live with almost went to pieces over it. But she knew whatever they said I was going to do it anyway "She was there on the day with my seven-year-old granddaughter, Sophina who was very anxious to see Granny do it.

"I thoroughly enjoyed it but it was all over so quickly. Now what I'd like is to do another one."

Some people might think of hanging up their dancing shoes when they reach their sixties but Janet Barrett, 63, has absolutely no intention of doing so.

Instead, Janet, who lives in West Oxfordshire village, hops and twirls her way through two exhausting three-hour sessions of modern jive dancing a week in Witney and Woodstock.

Jan, who still drives all over the country as a training consultant despite having retired from her careers advisory job two years ago, also holds a gold medal in disco dancing.

"I feel fitter than I have ever been and that is due to the regular once a week or twice a week dancing plus the workouts I do.

"At home, I close the curtains, put on my favourite record and dance around.

"I do tire more easily than when I was younger. By the end of the evening I can't throw myself around quite as much.

"It's true that I'm the oldest female in our jive group by far but people seemed to accept me from the word go and it has never been an issue.

"I suppose I am quite intrepid. Travel is my other great love and right into my 50s I used to take my backpack and travel the Far East alone.

"I'd have no problem doing it again tomorrow if I wanted."

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