Health minister marvels at Granny Hancock's longevity and vows to 'play part' in longer lives for all

“Granny Hancock died a couple of years ago at the age of 103 and I’m thrilled about that”, health secretary Matt Hancock told the audience at the launch of a new All Party Parliamentary Group for Longevity in Westminster.

Employed at a Co-op branch in Nottingham, Mr Hancock said his nan “wanted to keep working and she had to lie about her age. She got to the age of 60 and they told her she had to retire.

“She forged her birth certificate and then she got a forged passport by changing the digits to say she was 10 years younger because work was what she lived for.

“She lived most of her adult life as a widow. Her kids had grown up and moved away”.

The health secretary told the audience gathered for the APPG launch, that Granny Hancock “carried on working another 10 years entirely illicit.”

“It is our job in government to ensure we have health span as well as life span. So we can deliver the dream of longer healthier lives. We can play our part. I will play my part. This APPG is going to be a huge part of making that happen.”

Prime minister Theresa May has set a goal that by 2035, people in Britain can, on average, increase their life expectancy and live an extra five independent, healthy years. The APPG for longevity has been set up to focus on how to achieve that goal.

A cross party group of MPs are members of the new APPG for Longevity which includes Damian Green MP as chair of the new group, Norman Lamb MP as vice-chair, Baroness Sally Greengross as treasurer, Professor Andrew Scott the co-author of ‘The 100-year life’ as secretary and Lord Geoffrey Filkin as chair of the advisory board.

'An ageing society is not a cost'

Mr Hancock, speaking on Tuesday (7 May) said: “I love the fact we are now going to have an APPG on Longevity. It is now a government policy that we have longer, healthier lives.

“An ageing society in the public discourse has been seen as a cost. But an ageing society is not a cost. It is an asset. The challenge we have as policy makers is how do we make the most of our asset?”

Chair of the APPG, Damian Green MP says: “The APPG for Longevity was formed because we need to change how we see ageing - with a more positive narrative around the ‘extended middle age’ and what we can do to harness the opportunities of a longer life.

“We need to encourage business to help all citizens, from birth to old age, make better decisions on keeping healthy and active for longer. The commercial opportunities for business are vast too, and the sheer magnitude of the +50-market is staggering but is dependent on people maintaining good health into older age”.

'We have got to get a move on'

Lord Filkin, former chair of the Centre for Ageing Better, said of the 2035 goal, “we have got to get a move on”.

“We should speak fearlessly about what needs to be done, what needs to be changed and by whom, to make it happen over the next 15 years. “Most of you will live 10 years longer on average than your parents. This is the most amazing gift that our society has achieved collectively.”

Professor Andrew Scott said: “On average we are ageing better. On average, individuals are living longer and living healthier. How do we make the most of that individual?”

Mr Scott spoke of a need “to rewire existing policies” so that “the economy can seize the opportunities” and individuals can have lifelong learning, employment, financial security to manage their health, relationships, their skills, their finances and their careers.

Damian Green MP said the APPG is keen to turn new ideas into a national longevity strategy and will consider technological innovations like artificial intelligence and anything else that can help deliver the goal. The APPG will explore how AI-driven preventative health can help and how to reduce the financial burden of an ageing population by using insights from genetics, biological, behavioural, environmental and financial data.

On the day of the APPG’s launch, a new report was launched giving an international picture of longevity called ‘National Longevity Development Plans: Global Overview 2019’.