Jo Brand’s ageing comments draw letters on later-life choices

Jo Brand’s comments on approaching 70 prompted two Guardian Health letters published Nov. 8 about whether later life should be framed as self-improvement or individual choice.

The exchange matters because Dr Denise Taylor, a 69-year-old chartered psychologist, challenged the idea that older adults must treat ageing as another performance target.

Taylor, who was responding to Brand’s Nov. 2 interview, said older women should not be treated as a single category. “We are as varied, contradictory and individual as we have ever been,” she wrote.

Her letter argued that advice to exercise, eat better, stay productive and keep finding purpose may be well intended, but can make later life feel like work. She added: “Ageing isn’t a competition.”

A second letter, from Louise Mothersole in Bournemouth, Dorset, made the opposite practical point through an anecdote. Mothersole said she is 64 and her partner is 73, and that both began Couch to 5K in April after previously doing no sport or fitness activity.

Mothersole said they now run 5km three times a week, taking about 40 minutes. Her letter framed the experience as reassurance to Brand that nearing 70 is not necessarily too late to improve fitness.

The letters do not present clinical evidence or public-health guidance. They instead show two compatible claims: older people differ widely in what they want from ageing, and some individuals report starting structured exercise later in life.

Source: letters article, The Guardian Health, Nov. 8, 2026.

Atlas360 reports health research and does not provide medical advice.