International Older People's Day 2022

Saturday 1 October is International Older People’s Day and we're taking time at Nottingham On Call to celebrate all of the wonderful older people in Nottingham, as well as across the world.

This year the campaign is focussing on strong and influential older women.

With the sad passing of Queen Elizabeth II last month we want to take this opportunity to honour the incredible work the Queen did throughout her long life. The strength, resilience and love she shared right up until her final days was incredible and whether you are a royalist or not, it is clear to see the ways she has served her country since her reign began.

Another incredibly influential older woman was Mother Teresa who died on 5th September 1997.

Mother Teresa was a Roman Catholic nun. She devoted her life to serving the poor and sick around the world and spent a lot of time in Calcutta, India. She founded a charity for the sole purpose of helping those in need.

These are some well known influential women across the world but we want to encourage you to also think about the older women (and men) in your life.

Take some time to think about who has had a huge influence on your life. It might be a parent or carer from when you were younger or maybe currently. It could be a teacher from school who influenced your life in a significant way. Or maybe it is someone well known who you have never met but have still managed to be influential to you.

Maybe consider that you might be that influential person to someone else. A longer life brings with it knowledge, experience and the opportunity to share that with others.

Getting older shouldn’t be something to be worried about, it should be something to celebrate and a reason to share all of your life experience and knowledge knowing you might just be influencing somebody in your life or local community.