How to live a long life : Dr Black reflects on mother's example after recent bereavement

She was the ninth of 10 children born in Bishop Street to a working class family and five of her brothers and sisters died in childhood from infections (no childhood vaccinations or NHS then). The average life expectancy for someone from her background would have been 73 years so where did she get the extra 18 years from and what can we learn from her example?

People think that the key to success in life is to do the smart things well and while this is true my job as a GP has shown me that it’s even more important to avoid doing the stupid things.

Let’s start with what are the stupid things that will shorten your life and make your last decades miserable. Joint first now are smoking and obesity while alcohol, drug abuse and gambling aren’t far behind.

Life expectancy in my GP practice in inner city Derry is now 73 years (increased from 70 years when I started) but life expectancy in the Republic of Ireland has now risen to 83 years and there’s no doubt this is because our cousins in the south are well educated, well paid and have a much better health service than we have. They also have hope for their futures and invest in their futures by looking after themselves better than we do.

So what did Veronica do to gain an extra 18 years? Well first of all she did none of the stupid things but she also did a lot of the smart things. Let’s start with her diet: porridge, salads, lots of fruit and vegetables with very little fat, sugar or salt. Biscuits, cake and takeaways just weren’t on her menu.

She exercised all the time, Irish dancing in her youth, tennis in her 20s and then competitive golf for 60 years, with her last game of golf at the age of 90 years in Spain. She taught Irish dancing and keep fit and ran a successful fashion business for three decades in Derry while keeping her mind stimulated by playing bridge, and never used a calculator for her work preferring mental maths. Social interaction and support is very important for a long life and she married twice when my father died in a car accident and had six children, 15 grandchildren and 12 great grandchildren.

She never missed a vaccination, was well looked after by her GPs in Aberfoyle surgery and by Altnagelvin Hospital when she had a life-threatening obstetric emergency.

We haven’t mentioned the influence of the good luck she experienced. She didn’t die in childhood from infectious diseases, she didn’t die in the car crash when she was sitting next to her first husband when he died. She was saved by her doctors when she suffered a life-threatening amniotic embolism in her fourth pregnancy. So what are the lessons for the rest of us?

Choose your parents carefully, eat sensibly and move around a lot; don’t get fat, smoke, gamble or abuse alcohol or drugs. Work hard, marry a kind person, engage with a positive social network and make sure you get a good night’s sleep. Probably better if you live in the Republic of Ireland.