people and the potential of research into the mechanisms of ageing to alleviate them. As Hugh Faulkner, founder of Help the Aged, put it in a 1976 editorial: Age Action Year will also see the provision of a foundation for co-ordinated research into ageing itself. This opens up exciting possibilities for everyone, because if we are to make old age a time of interest and healthy activity we have to know how to make people fit into later years, how to make the best use of available resources and how to gear our living throughout our lives so that we know how to make the best of our own 'bonus years'. Britain badly needs this foundation, because although we are ahead of so many countries in the field of geriatric medicine, we do lag behind in not having a foundation to co-ordinate and direct various fields of research. The research envisaged will tackle memory loss and senile dementia, which affects 27 per cent of those over 85; it will tackle incontinence, which is both distressing and humiliating; diabetes, which is the cause of many heart attacks and strokes; retirement, with its problems and opportunities, and other social matters. The foundation will mean that every one of us can look to a more hopeful future. This new foundation which has such potential will require a lot of money, and it was this which prompted Sir Lindsay Ring (Lord Mayor of London till last month) to make Age Action Year his special appeal and put into it all his energy and enthusiasm. This was infectious, and the money has been coming in: first from individuals whose contributions are still required, then from companies and trusts, and recently a significant move has come from the trade union movement. Jack Jones challenged members of his own union and others to donate one penny a week from their wages. People in Britain have become more aware than ever before of the needs of the elderly. They have also seen that these needs can be met on the two fronts pioneered by Age Action Year. First, at the local level, so much can be done for the elderly among us. Secondly, at the research level: and we can all contribute to the setting up of the new foundation. The BSRA had worked exceptionally hard to promote the Foundation which was originally known as the British Foundation