Welcome to our bouncing baby!

There’s no baby here, but our website is brand new and will focus on the latest news for seniors and the elderly as far as healthcare is concerned.

Welcome to our La Vie Care Wellness Blog

All the health news you want to know will be right here, as well as contact details if you want to get hold of a doctor or specialist.

This website is a long-held passion of mine. I’m a senior myself, and have many senior friends, I know what things affect us and what the most common health issues are, so I’ve been wanting to do this for ages.

With the backing of La Vie Care, a private group of frail care facilities based in Gauteng, it has been possible to finally bring this bouncing baby into the world!

I have had a life in the wonderful world of publishing, mainly in the business sector. Earlier on, I was the Editor of The Medical Chronicle, a glossy tabloid targeted at GPs and specialists and ran the paper for many years together with my mentor and publisher Ralph Cohen.

Medical advertising agency

After the Chronicle, I launched a medical advertising agency together with my partner Lynne Zurnamner. It was called OZ Advertising (O-Owen, Z- Zurnamer…clever huh?) and Lynne still runs the agency today. Our clients were all the pharmaceutical companies and the agency was involved in many drug launches. It was a world I delighted in, knowing that we were bringing vital news of breakthrough products to the medical fraternity.

Since those days, the pharmaceutical industry has changed beyond recognition with many mergers and companies falling by the way. I often drive past places where certain companies used to be and think fondly of the people I used to deal with. Ah well, time hurtles on. Many of those people, if they are still with us, have emigrated and that leaves a sadness within me.

That’s life, as the popular saying goes. I’m still in touch with some via Facebook, although it’s never quite the same as just popping into the coffee shop around the corner for a chat is it? Time is the merciless soldier, always marching on. Us seniors know this all too well. Isn’t it incredible that time seems to go that much faster when you reach a certain age?

Catching up with old school friends

All my friends agree with this. Sometimes, I wake up and realise that I’m a certain age that never in my wildest dreams I thought I would reach and it’s a sobering thought. There’s an adage that goes thus: “There comes a time when you stop looking forward and you start looking backwards.” Yup, that’s so true with me. I even found my old high school site on Facebook and I have had a great time catching up on the last 50 years or so with many of my old friends.

Have we done everything that we thought we would do as bright young things? Not even close. But we certainly have had good times, and obviously bad times too, and we agree that life has done us well. It’s great fun seeing what my friends look like now, meeting their various spouses and children online, and what they’ve gone on to make of their lives.

Priceless treasure trove

C’est la vie, indeed! Life is truly an amazing thing and we are here to celebrate it. Much of life, and not only among us oldies, is mixed with sadness, but no-one promised us a rose garden, and what we learn and hold steadfast is a treasure trove that is priceless. That’s the joy of a life well lived.

The thing is, also, to do away with negative thoughts over things that we cannot control and have no say over whatsoever. There is much in this country that needs fixing, but then there’s much in most countries that need fixing! We have no control over these things so to fret and make yourselves ill over them is silly. What we should do, rather, is focus on what we can do – and most importantly, this involves in taking better care of ourselves!

So, while this website involves mainly healthcare, there is ample space to hear from you, and to tell us what you’re up to and give us some of your background. That’s what makes for an interesting site. While you’re at it, tell us what you think about the website!

Share your story here

There’s many an interesting story to share, and there’s no better place to do that than right here! It need not involve health at all but could be a slice of your life that’s humorous or amazing – or both!

It could well involve healthcare, and you have a story to share that centres around something that happened to you. Let’s hear about it.

We have some magnificent things planned for you and promise to bring you some of the best healthcare writing on the continent. We will be featuring exclusives, like the article on Professor Nola Dippenaar and many others, and articles on everything health-wise that affects our population. As far as possible, these will be all be interviews I will conduct with specialists and surgeons. There will be many spokespeople also from the various associations who are eager to share news and experiences with us.

In all, this is my dream come true and I promise to always stick to my motto – content is king! Looking forward to hearing from you! Take care folks!

May I also take this opportunity in wishing you all a wonderful 2020!

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