I recall reading a story about a man who would, every day when leaving for work, jump over his garden wall. Never used the gate, always jumped the wall. When asked the reason for this he stated that if he jumped the wall every day there would never come a day when he couldn’t do it.

Ageing is inevitable, a decline in mobility and cognition will affect us all eventually but this man was completely right we can delay the process. If you continue using it, you’ll never lose it.

We enjoy activities every day that are designed to give both our brains and our bodies a workout. Every morning we start the day with seated exercises, these really get the blood flowing and it is amazing how quickly our muscles become more flexible, even at our age.

Our brains are challenged in many ways, sometimes just looking for our glasses to start the activity. Today we played Scrabble, we have a fabulous large print board and tiles which enable us to play independently. Scrabble is a great way to work the old grey matter and the fact that we are all quite competitive means that we often push ourselves to reach into to the furthest corners of our minds to seek out a little-known word to wow our friends and win us the game.

Of course, the brain controls the whole body, so we do not always have to indulge in tricky word puzzles or maths quizzes to stretch it. Any activity that causes us to draw on memory or learn something new will strengthen the pathways and keep the brain healthy. From crafting to reminiscing and gardening to bingo, everything we do is helping to keep us young, even if it is just at heart.

Sadly, we’ll never be able to go back in time and start leapfrogging our garden walls but it is not too late for us to look after what we have now.