We have started to live longer and our quality of life has improved. We drink cleaner water, have enough food to eat and won't face many of the infectious diseases that wreaked havoc on the generations before us. The average life expectancy has doubled over the last 100 years. According to recent estimates, half of people over 65 that have ever lived on this planet are alive now.

Still, this positive trend has its own frightening consequences, which are clearly visible in developed countries nowadays.

"Will I become a powerless, half-deaf, half-blind old man living in suffering? Or are these the regular fears of a 50-year old man who expects the future to bring only the worst? What will I do over the next 40 years when my two daughters are all grown up and do not need my support anymore?"

These questions bother Rudi Westendorp, a gerontologist from Leiden University in the Netherlands and the author of 'Growing Older Without Feeling Old'. These concerns are also relevant to current Russian realities where it is almost impossible to find a job when you are over 50 and the knowledge and expertise gained 10 or 20 or 30 years ago proves irrelevant. At the same time adult children need their parents' help less and less. At his lecture, Professor Westendorp will share the latest scientific knowledge from various fields on how to deal with the changes happening in ageing bodies and how to live an active and fulfilling life.