29 September, 2025
Super-spry seniors help launch book on ageing better

Inspirational… author Leigh Elder (82) with former national tennis champ Margaret Borland (99) and former top running coach Arch Jelley (103)

Eighty-two-year-old Devonport resident Leigh Elder is an exemplar of active living, but says he is “only a kid” compared with some of the inspiring seniors at his book launch.
Among them was Arch Jelley, 103, master running coach to Olympic gold medallists Peter Snell and John Walker. The story of the Auckland “super ager” who still walks kilometres a day is one of several Elder tells in his latest book Don’t Act Your Age – Living younger can be age defying.
Another who attended was former national tennis champion Margaret Borland, aged 99, who came from Dunedin for the launch held at the William Sanders Retirement Village last Friday.
Like Jelley, Borland keeps spry with regular squats. She also gardens and plays golf and bridge. Both were happy to support the book’s health advocacy message, including practical tips on improving fitness and eating. These were shared with around 70 village residents and guests, over low-GI mini scones and muffins. “Swap out half the white flour with rolled oats,” says Elder, who got the chef to make them specially.

He namechecks other inspirations among fellow residents at Ryman, where he and wife Kate have lived for five years. There’s 100-year-old June Watson, a former singer and dancer who swims in the village pool and 96-year-old Vic Murrray, who still strides off to his Ngataringa garden plot. “One of the great things in my life has been meeting those people and hearing their stories,” Elder says. “I take from them that it’s possible to reach super-age and still be active and alert.”
It’s the term he uses for “someone north of 90, who’s fit and well and really engaged”.
As much as he believes in making good lifestyle choices, he also knows health can be a genetic lottery. He recommends people improve their odds and make the most of what they’ve got, while they’re able.
This can be as simple as following his BAFFS principles – standing for Balance, Agility, Flexibility, Fitness and Strength.

Seeing how energetic super-agers also have terrific interest in people and retain a glint in the eye, has helped Elder round out his own thinking. “The Japanese call it ikigai – it means finding your purpose.”
In writing his book, he drew on having founded an “Eat for Keeps” programme for diabetes and weight control, working on it with GPs and corporates, and his experience of writing two previous books. He knows much of the advice isn’t rocket science, but says getting the message through that relatively simple changes can reap big dividends needs to be spelled out. “I challenged myself to live like someone 20 years younger – it’s been the best thing I’ve ever done,” he says.
The former sports all-rounder and PE teacher, who has also had stints as a rest-home owner and a life coach, had a health wake-up call around 15 years ago, with a bowel cancer scare and high blood pressure. It got him thinking more about what could be ahead. At the time, he and Kate were “living life to the full” in Mt Maunganui, playing tennis and golf and socialising.
The location has changed, but the couple still enjoy those pursuits, plus daily walks up Maungauika. “The payoff is at the top.”

Don’t Act Your Age – Living younger can be age defying ($39.95) is available from Hayward’s opposite Devonport Library.

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