Sunday
Mar072010
Still smoking and drinking at 100
Sunday, March 7, 2010 
I spent £75 on Friday for permission to use this photograph, and it's worth every penny. It belongs to South West News Service (SWNS) and it appeared in the Daily Telegraph and other newspapers on Thursday.
The headline says it all – '100-year-old woman says drink and cigarettes keep her young'.
Full story HERE.
Reader Comments (11)
Good for Mrs Gobey and it looks, too, as if she's fortunate enough to still live in her own home. Were she in 'care' her health might well have been compromised by being forced outside in all weathers to enjoy her cigarette.
You'd really hope that some enterprising medical researcher is taking a genetic sample from her, wouldn't you? She must have absolute cracker DNA!
Ano -
The geneticists ARE working on it - and have been for some time.
It's called Real Science - the sort that extends the frontiers of human knowledge, and brings hope to the human condition.
Sadly, NOT the sort, therefore, to get the 'government funding' it deserves.
And the Arnotts of this world would rather regard people like Lorna as a Scientific Freak - than a Ray of Hope.
I wonder why.....................
I see loads of senoir citizens smoking as there are sheltered flats next to the office I work in.
Always say good morning.
My great grandfather smoked he made 96.
This is nowhere near as uncommon as the health Nazi's make out.
I'm 50 never seen the inside of a hospital.
Actually that's wrong I have visited other people there.
...and every single one of those senior citizens is a walking contradiction of passive smoking...
According to the antis, she would look 20 if she didn't smoke. After all, it ages people, doesn't it?
It's a good thing she didn't start smoking when she was 20???
Specky, sadly my grandfather only made it to 95. He had never had a days illness in his life until a minor prostate problem led him to a hospital stay and a minor procedure.
Out of 6 patients in one morning he was the only one given a general anaesthetic. It was 6 weeks before we were told that he suffered oxygen starvation under the anaesthetic; he died 3 days after we were told this.
He smoked all his life, never drank spirits but did enjoy his Guinness - half a pint a day and a pint on Sunday's, High Day's and Holiday's with the occasional Sherry at weddings and funerals.
In fact, most of his siblings, 8 in total, have lived into their late 80's and early 90's - one did get to 100. There are 2 still living and both are in their 90's.
Believe me, if this country continues going down the pan as it has been doing over recent years, then I certainly do not want to live as long as Grandad and his brother and sisters!
Lyn -
Were I a 20-year-old now, I'd be TERRIFIED of having to live past 60.
If, as you say, we continue going down THIS road.
And 'down' is the word, I think.............
I can see why Martin V. When we were getting ready to board our plane in Palma, Majorca at the weekend, to unfortunately return to this God forsaken country, I was panicking about getting a front seat as I am claustrophobic (EasyJet is like boarding a bus), when my husband pointed out that soon we will be too old to sit in the front seats as the people sitting there have to be fit and able bodied to open the doors in an emergency!
It soon brings it home when I realise that I will be 53 this week and have no idea where the past 10 years have gone!
I did catch something on the TV earlier where politicians, starting with Ann Widdicombe I believe, will be trying to find out what the people of this country want and what it is that stops so many of us voting.
In my opinion, voting would be more worthwhile if there someone out there who had and could use some Common Sense! Some of the brief clips shown included people saying they want politicians to back off running our lives.
I believe the first part is on this week, but not sure which day, but it is one of the terrestrial channels.
Lyn -
Thanks for the advice. I'll keep an eye out, but no promises: I rarely watch the telly these days.
Ever since entering MY Fifties (the Age of Awareness ?), I've grown increasingly tired of the incessant worship of mediocrity, the constant attempt to sell me something I don't want - whether widgets or ideas - (and that includes the BBC), the paucity of journalistic integrity - and now, a markedly contrived gender-and-age imbalance (but NEVER in favour of 'mature' women, sadly).
I mean, do we really NEED to have TWO news presenters, where one would previously do, and a Pretty, Smiling Face to tell us that it's going to rain tomorrow (possibly) ?
I just get the feeling that SOMEONE is trying to Cameronise me into an early grave - assuming Harriet Harman hasn't by then banned Premature Male Mortality and put Charon the Ferryperson on a quota system.
Thank God for DVDs, books, Chicago Blues, and the Internet !
And Victor Meldrew.
And Lorna Gobey/Govey.
Apart from that.............