Judith: “I feel blessed and thankful to you all for giving me this chance!”
My name is Judith Hughes, I am 60 and I have recently retired from the NHS. I've been working in the NHS since I was 19, the last 20 years in orthopaedics, stroke and dementia wards. I've worked through COVID on the front line when the first lot hit as well, and that did cause quite an impact, to be honest.
“It has turned me around in so many ways and I am in a really good place”
The reality of it is, that you can't do at 60 what you used to do at 40 or even 30 and I feel blessed and thankful to you all for giving me this chance! Because, it's up to you when you're given a chance. It has turned me around in so many ways and I am in a really good place.
“I'm loving life and now this is my time”
I'm loving life and now and this is my time. My children have grown up, I've got grandchildren I love… but they go home, It's fabulous! And I've got new things, I've started country dancing, I volunteer in a charity shop, and I swim twice a week.
So, I now leave the car where I can because I've got my fit bit. This is a fabulous little piece of equipment and I count my steps about four or five times a week. I normally manage to do 10,000 or more and of course, it's got the calories burned displayed on it. It is helpful to see the calories that I'm putting in and the calories that I'm burning - obviously I try to burn more than I put in! So this has been a really clever tool for me. I'm one happy bunny and so thankful to you all.
“Eat healthily and move more”
I think the key to it all is to eat healthily and move more. So, although I'm not running, I can't physically even go out in the garden without thinking “crikey”, I've got to come in and sit and have a cup of tea. But today I’ll be taking the bus one way into town and walking home.
My heart risk has gone from 86, I think, to 66 and my cholesterol is down to 5.5! The nurses said I needed to get hold of the GP so I had a telephone appointment yesterday and my thyroxine has come down from 125 to 100, get in there! So everything, health wise…medically is just so much better.