A 77-year-old is proudly still rocking a bikini – and says she hates having to cover her toned physique.
Norma Williams spends hours a week honing her physique, keeping active with swimming, hiking and cycling.
And her hard work has paid off, with the pensioner feeling more confident in her 70s than she did in her 20s.
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“I love to show my body off in figure-clinging clothes,” she told Need To Know.
“Even in the winter, I wear tight clothes – I hate concealing my body.
“While I’m conscious my body looks ‘worn’, it doesn’t bother me because I appreciate its strength and fitness.
“Youth doesn’t equal beauty – I never had a body like this when I was young!
“It had become more beautiful as I’ve aged.
“Beauty is about health, fitness and shape – not fashion, youth and tummy tucks.
“Beauty is also about the stories your body tells – the scars, the wrinkles, the injured limbs.
“Why not show off everything in a bikini, whatever age you are and whatever point you’re at in life’s journey?
“For as long as you’re living, be proud of your body – and what better way to show it off but in a bikini?
“The teenier, the better!”
Incredibly, Norma, who lives in Spoleto, Italy, but is originally from Liverpool, felt more insecure in her younger years than she does now.
She said, “I felt a lot more self-conscious wearing a bikini when I was in my 20s than now.
“Over the years, as I aged, my confidence and pride in my body grew.
“I didn’t reach perfect health and fitness until I was 60 years old.
“I can swim 60 Olympic lengths in just over an hour, I can cycle for hours, and I walk fast for 8km every day.
“The biggest difference between me in my 20s and me in my 70s is, quite simply, energy.
“My energy levels have increased exponentially over the past 50 years – and that’s what drives me to live the way I do now.
“People are generally shocked when they discover my age. Often, strangers will stop me and politely ask my age.
“All youngsters say the same thing: ‘When I’m older, I want to look like you, Norma’.
“I am an emblem of the future, but I think I look every second of my years.
“But because I look so fit and am different to the stereotypical image we have of the ‘elderly’, people find it hard to believe.
“They think I seem to have defied age, but I haven’t – ageing has benefitted me.
“I show no signs of slowing down – if anything, I’m faster and have more energy with every year that passes.
“I couldn’t feel better about my body than I do now!
“It is beautiful and I genuinely love it.”
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