We live in a world where there are definitely more old people, people are living longer and people are living longer with illnesses and conditions that previously would have killed them at an earlier age. However we are often told in this country that our population are not necessarily happy with their lot. While they eat better, have more disposible income even in poverty than some of our ancestors did, they are often less healthy in terms of both physical and mental health. Perhaps in the past, if you didn’t die of a health problem during childhood and were relatively healthy, you stayed that way until you became ill and died at what we might consider to be young by todays terms. You might then have considered, perhaps on your death bed that you had had a ‘good innings’ (I’ve heard people say this quite a few times) and could face death knowing that you’d done what you expected. Now though we expect more, and perhaps we also expect not to actually die.

This last couple of weeks I have heard of the death of 3 people who died perhaps before there time in all cases. I knew one of those people a little (she was our PCT chair), another I felt I knew through her blog posts which often told of her small triumphs despite failing health, and the third I only knew through his music and what I had seen of him on TV. None of those people could be described as old, indeed Michael Jackson was only 2 months older than my own husband. But the death of these 3 people (we often in health talk of things happening in 3’s) has moved me to think about life and about how we can make the most of life and enjoy what we have of it.

In the NHS (and outside of it of course) there has been much talk of pensions. There are people in the media and in politics who, because of the poor performance of private pensions would like public sector pension holders to be penalised. It is not fair apparently that we should have something good for relatively little when others have paid quite a bit for what is pretty much worthless. I have paid 6% of my salary for nearly 30 years, at the beginning it was 6% of very little, but it was a lot to me as a poorly paid student nurse. Our scheme offers a payment at the end based on final salary and, because I am a nurse and I joined when I did I can retire at age 55 (or after 40 years for full entitlement). This is no longer affordable to the whole public sector economy, changes have been made, and will continue to be made, perhaps quite rightly. The statutory age for retirement by the time I reach 55 will be 65 and is highly likely to increase to 68 or even 70. Personally I don’t think retirement at 55 will be an option, however I might still want to take my NHS pension when I can and I might actually want to do something else.

I have, thoughout my career met and known a number of people who have either not lasted to retirement, or who have died or become ill shortly afterwards. These people have often looked forward to the range of things they might be able to do when they no longer had to provide nursing care to others, or no longer needed to turn up to the office only to find they were never able to fulfil those dreams. I for one have to tell you that I already value my life, I come from a family of women who don’t tend to live long or well (my maternal grandmother had a heart condition from age 60, my mum has had a number of strokes and is 69, my paternal grandmother had rheumatoid arthritis and died at 66).

With my son off to university in the autumn I intend to put some extra effort into my career and the type of job I can do. But it won’t be to the detriment of the quality of my life, it wont add years to my career, it wont make me want to spend my evenings and weekends putting in extra time, and it won’t make me want to extend my career in the NHS. I have other things I’d like to do, more things I’d like to learn (that have nothing to do with nursing or health). I may live to 100, but if as I suspect, I don’t I want to be able to say on my deathbed that I have had a good innings.

The two photos above are from my recent trip to the south of France, taken while I was making the most of life!