A TOTAL of 24 members were present as Richard Adams, standing in for Gerald Hill, opened the August meeting of Crediton Probus Club on Tuesday, August 1 at Downes Crediton Golf Club.

He began by warning us that our September meeting will start half-an-hour later than normal at 1.30pm.

Grace was given by Reg Nott and then we settled down to an excellent meal from the Golf Club kitchen.

After the meal the quote was given by Keith Barker and the draw won by Jack Fey (although he gave this back to Peter Bryan for next month’s prize).

The acting president, asked Keith Beetlestone to introduce our speaker, Darren Walker of the lottery-funded charity, Drink Wise, Age Well.

Darren began by telling us that Drink Wise, Age Well doesn’t tell people how to lead their lives, it just provides advice.

A large percentage of the population of Devon is, like us, retired, and Devon is one of the five British areas that Drink Wise, Age Well is funded to deliver services.

Through his talk Darren tried to systematically destroy many of our pre-conceived ideas about the consumption of alcohol by posing questions (for the most part answered wrongly by members) and giving simple tests, most of which were failed dismally.

Drinking is tied to a large extent to financial well-being. Now Devon is a fairly affluent county but it has pockets of deprivation (for example, parts of Plymouth) where there is more of a drink problem.

More than four million people in the UK aged over 50 are in the increasing risk category and more than 700,000 are higher risk drinkers and a third of older people with a drink problem developed it in later life.

For both men and women in the UK the rates of alcohol-related death were highest in those aged 55 to 64 years in 2015.

For the group aged 55 -74, they showed an increase since 2010 of 88 per cent for men and 53 per cent for women.

There has been an increase in alcohol related deaths of 176 per cent in men and 145 per cent in women. In the Plymouth area in 2011 the average age of alcohol-related death was 56 for men.

Problems with alcohol are linked to bereavement, retirement, illness, isolation and loneliness.

In Devon Drink Wise Age Well offers awareness workshops and information stalls on alcohol and getting older; it organises social activities and group meetings and gives training to social care providers and community organisations.

Darren finished his talk by giving members a number of aids (pens with messages, measures for alcohol, safe limits for alcohol consumption etc)

Darren was thanked for his "sobering" talk by Don Nicholson and the meeting closed with the toast "to the next time".

KB