Noeline’s advice on positive ageing

“You only hear bad things about ageing,” Australian actress and the nation’s Ambassador for the Ageing, Noeline Brown, tells DPS News.

“My role as ambassador and as a member of the ageing community is to talk about the positive stories of ageing – and there are many out there,” Ms Brown claims.

She has been ambassador for three years and was recently signed up for another three. However, the Australian actress and comedian, who has appeared in many films, television shows, plays and radio programs, first gained local notoriety in Sydney as a cast member the famous Philip St Revues and the popular melodrama productions at Sydney’s Music Hall theatre-restaurant in the early 1960s.

Australia knew her name and face after she joined the cast of the pioneering Australian satirical TV sketch comedy series The Mavis Bramston Show. Ms Brown was also the co-star of the 1970s satirical TV/radio series The Naked Vicar Show and the quiz show Graham Kennedy’s Blankety Blanks.

Using her celebrity status to encourage the public to think positively about ageing has been helpful to Ms Brown in her ambassador role.

“As someone who was living in the family rooms, as an actress, of these people who now make up the older generation, it was always easier to use my profile to get the messages out,” she says.

Despite being the Ambassador for the Ageing, Ms Brown insists she also speaks to young people who will inevitably grow older.

“The main thing we have to consider is planning ahead and the only way you can plan and think ahead is by talking,” she says.

According to Ms Brown, the “big message” to remember as one grows older is to stay involved in the community, and cites volunteering as an important way to stay connected.

While maintaining physical activity and eating healthily are important factors in old age, learning something new and challenging can also be a good way to age well, Ms Brown claims.

“Challenging and difficult games like cryptic crosswords are good. Do something you think you can’t do, and do it as often as you think you can. It’s a really good way of keeping mentally alive as often the body can fail you, but you can still have your intellect.”

Although she insists with a laugh that she does not consider herself to be “ageing gracefully”, Ms Brown believes her background as a performer has helped along the way.

“I have had to look after myself and this is why I promote eating well and trying to put a bit of makeup on in the morning, because I think that’s a really important thing to do.

“Treat yourself and be nice to yourself. Even if you don’t have much money, save a little bit each week and make that trip to the hairdresser, or join that Men’s Shed so you have a group of people to talk to about all the intimate things going on in your life,” she says.

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