I WATCHED an interesting presentation at Sully School the other day.

The Year 6s had been working with Cardiff and Vale University Health Board on falls prevention and invited people of the local community to watch their assembly.

It featured really useful information about risk factors for falls and how you can help to prevent them.

I am always impressed by the time and effort that the teachers and support staff put in; the work, care and effort from the children and the interest and support of family.

Exercises were highlighted and one tip the children gave out is to see if you can stand up from being seated on a chair, without using your hands.

The assembled grown-ups were doubtless mulling over the chances of them doing this.

Then one child demonstrated going from being sat cross-legged on the floor, rising to a standing position without using hands to touch the floor.

A peel of nervous chuckles wafted up from the grown-ups, fairly certain that there was probably, possibly, maybe a chance of the chair standing move going to plan, but the floor to standing was likely beyond our collective capabilities.

Though, my very game friend Rachel did try during the refreshment break.

Funnily enough Rachel and I had met that morning for tea and cinnamon bagels and had discussed all things ageing and its effect on our bodies.

Rachel has a fascinating and fabulous past, having danced in the London production of the Andrew Lloyd-Webber musical ‘Cats’ and shaken her tail and head feathers with aplomb at Paris’s ‘Moulin Rouge’.

She is an exuberant, vibrant, warm and wonderful woman and a lifetime of dance and discipline shows in the graceful way she moves her long limbs.

I went for a run the other day and spent the 24 hours afterwards with an achy calf.

This was added to the mix of the conversation with Rachel as we mused on the inevitability, or not, of aches, pains and a loss of movement and mobility.

I wonder the extent to which our attitude affects our ageing?

I have a phenomenal great aunt in her 90s who is fit and agile in mind and body and yet have come across people in their forties who seem to creak and complain.

My great aunt is curious and a great believer in keeping busy, but is it her attitude that is keeping her mobile or has she simply been blessed with a healthy physique?

Not being a trained orthopaedic consultant or physiotherapist I can’t definitively answer the question of what helps us stay fit and active and those aches and pains parked firmly at bay and do feel desperately for those who have a body that gives them pain or discomfort.

But I do believe that whatever your age you can be interested in the world, contribute to your community and be open to learning.

None of that prevented or cured my painful calf, but adopting that mindset, certainly didn’t hurt it.