Hayley Okines was just like any other teenager: she loved clothes, shopping, and boy bands, and hated getting up in the morning. But she had progeria, which meant she aged eight times faster than normal, giving her the body of a 126-year-old. Her positive attitude and infectious smile charmed millions of people through her Extraordinary People TV documentaries. At the age of seventeen, in April 2015, Hayley tragically lost her battle to be the longest survivor of progeria, succumbing to pneumonia in the arms of her mother. This book tells Hayley’s story in her own words, continuing from the bestselling Old Before My Time. She reflects on the pains and perks of growing up with progeria – from the heartbreak of being told she will never walk again to the delight of passing her exams and starting college. Hayley considers mood swings, marriage, music, and what it’s like to be ‘famous’ and is heartbreakingly positive about a future that wasn’t to be.

Hayley Okines is like no other 13-year-old schoolgirl. In Old Before My Time, Hayley and her mum Kerry reflect on her unusual life. Share Hayley's excitement as she travels the world meeting her pop heroes Kylie, Girls Aloud and Justin Bieber and her sadness as she loses her best friend to the disease at the age of 11. Now as she passes the age of 13 - the average life expectancy for a child with progeria - Hayley talks frankly about her hopes for the future and her pioneering drug trials in America which could unlock the secrets of ageing for everyone...

Lisa Niemi and Patrick Swayze first met as teenagers at his mother's dance studio. He was older and just a bit cocky; she was the gorgeous waif who refused to worship the ground he walked on. It didn't take long for them to fall in love. Their thirty-four year marriage -- which they explored together in The Time of My Life -- was a uniquely passionate partnership. Now, for the first time, Lisa will share what it was like to care for her husband as he battled Stage IV pancreatic cancer, and will describe his last days when she simply tried to keep him comfortable. She writes searingly about her grief in the aftermath of Patrick's death, and candidly discusses the challenges that the past fourteen months without him have posed. But while this is an emotionally honest and unflinching depiction of illness, death, and loss, it is also a hopeful and life-affirming exploration of the power of the human spirit. Lisa shows that no matter how dark the prospect of another day may seem, there are always reserves of strength to call upon, and the love shared between two people will never truly die.

The amazing and awkward life of Britain’s ‘oldest’ teenager Hayley Okines is just like any other seventeen-year-old: she loves clothes, shopping, TV and boy bands and hates getting up in the morning. But she has the rare genetic condition progeria, which means she ages eight times faster than normal, giving her the body of a 126-year-old woman. Her positive attitude and infectious smile has charmed millions of people, through a series of ‘Extraordinary People’ TV documentaries. Now in Young at Heart Hayley continues her unusual life story, which began with Old Before My Time. She reflects on the pains and perks of growing up with progeria; from the heartbreak of being told she will never walk again to the delight of passing her exams and starting college. She reveals the success of pioneering American drug trials, the sadness of losing younger friends to the disease and considers mood swings, marriage, music and what it’s like to be ‘famous’. As she approaches her seventeenth birthday, four years beyond the average life expectancy, Hayley looks forward to an independent and healthy future and tries hard not to think of what lies ahead.

Hayley Okines was just like any other teenager: she loved clothes, shopping, and boy bands, and hated getting up in the morning. But she had progeria, which meant she aged eight times faster than normal, giving her the body of a 126-year-old. Her positive attitude and infectious smile charmed millions of people through her Extraordinary People TV documentaries. At the age of seventeen, in April 2015, Hayley tragically lost her battle to be the longest survivor of progeria, succumbing to pneumonia in the arms of her mother. This book tells Hayley's story in her own words, continuing from the bestselling Old Before My Time. She reflects on the pains and perks of growing up with progeria - from the heartbreak of being told she will never walk again to the delight of passing her exams and starting college. Hayley considers mood swings, marriage, music, and what it's like to be 'famous' and is heartbreakingly positive about a future that wasn't to be.

While aging and the life-course appear to be normalized processes, the complex construction of age at the intersection of biology, society, and culture remains opaque. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of age(ing) by exploring its construction through the analysis of extraordinary cases. Focusing on life narratives of centenarians and children with progeria, Julia Velten analyzes the way in which these people experience age(ing) and shows how these experiences can contribute to our understanding of age. Situated at the intersection of aging studies and medical humanities, the study explores what extraordinary age(ing) can tell us about aging processes in general.

From the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature and author of the Booker Prize–winning novel The Remains of the Day In the face of the misery in his homeland, the artist Masuji Ono was unwilling to devote his art solely to the celebration of physical beauty. Instead, he put his work in the service of the imperialist movement that led Japan into World War II. Now, as the mature Ono struggles through the aftermath of that war, his memories of his youth and of the "floating world"—the nocturnal world of pleasure, entertainment, and drink—offer him both escape and redemption, even as they punish him for betraying his early promise. Indicted by society for its defeat and reviled for his past aesthetics, he relives the passage through his personal history that makes him both a hero and a coward but, above all, a human being.

This irreverent romp through the worlds of medicine and the military is part autobiography, part social history, and part laugh-out-loud comedy. When the author graduated from medical school in 1970, only 7% of America's doctors were women, and very few of those joined the military. She was the second woman ever to do an Air Force internship, the only woman doctor at David Grant USAF Medical Center, and the only female military doctor in Spain. She had to fight for acceptance: even the 3 year old daughter of a patient told her father, "Oh, Daddy! That¿s not a doctor, that's a lady." She was refused a radiology residency because they subtracted points for women. She couldn¿t have dependents: she was paid less than her male counterparts, she couldn't live on base, and her civilian husband was not even covered for medical care or allowed to shop on base. After spending six years as a General Medical Officer in Franco's Spain, she became a family practice specialist and a flight surgeon, doing everything from delivering babies to flying a B-52. Along the way, she found time to buy her own airplane and learn to fly it (in that order) and to have two babies of her own. She retired as a full colonel. As a rare woman in a male-dominated field, she encountered prejudice, silliness, and even frank disbelief. Her sense of humor kept her afloat; she enlivened the solemnity of her job with antics like admitting a spider to the hospital and singing "The Mickey Mouse Club March" on a field exercise. This book describes her education and career. She tells an entertaining story of what it was like to be a female doctor, flight surgeon, pilot, and military officer in a world that wasn't quite ready for her yet. The title is taken from her first cross-country solo flight: when she closed out her flight plan, the man at the desk said, "Didn't anybody ever tell you women aren't supposed to fly?"

This is an astonishingly candid insight into the world of Billie Piper. Famous since the age of 15 - first as the face of Smash Hits, then as a pop singer with three No.1 hits in less than three years - Billie Piper has won over the critics and the British public for a second time by re-inventing herself as an actress in BBC productions of Much Ado About Nothing, The Canterbury Tales and, of course, Doctor Who. And that's just the professional Billie. In this book, for the first time, she talks honestly about her whirwind romance and marriage to Chris Evans, about her battles with anorexia and the dark side of teen fame. Moving, funny and honest, this is a page-turning read by one of the nation's favourite stars.