Take Five to Age Well: Empowering the UK towards longer, healthier lives

Do you want to live well longer? You are in the right place.

Take Five to Age Well offers five steps to boost your health and well-being. Launching on 1st May 2025, the campaign invites you to join a UK-wide community making small daily changes over 30 consecutive days for better ageing. We are asking you to choose one or more actions from the list below and try to maintain that healthy change(s) for one month, to improve your health and wellbeing in the short and longer term.
We’ll support you during those 30 days to turn those changes into a habit for long-term health and wellbeing.’

After a successful pilot in 2023 and Age UK partnered run in May 2025 the Take Five jointly attracted over 5,000 people and had overwhelmingly positive feedback, we will keep you posted on reports and new developments.

 

Urgent Action Needed: Transforming the health of an ageing population

Read and share the Take Five Policy Brief co-produced with Age UK, Age Scotland, Age Cymru and Age NI.

This briefing brings together the results of four surveys which assessed participants motivation, experience, adherence, and long-term commitment to Take Five actions over one, five, and nine months. Collaborating with behaviour change experts and stakeholders - including clinicians, commissioners, and individuals with lived experience - it has refined Take Five to maximise its effectiveness and impact.

 

Take Five to Age Well Interim Short Report

This Interim Short Report contains updates on data collected during the pilot run of the campaign (1st -30th September 2023). More specifically, you will find here preliminary findings based on the data collected from Sign up, Survey 1 (at the beginning of the campaign) & Survey 2 (at the end of the campaign).

We are still working on the analysis of Survey 3 (collected five months after the campaign finished) & Survey 4 (collected nine months after the campaign finished). We will share a full report/publication in 2025.
Find more information about the research

 

Why take part?

Everyone wants more time on Earth in good health and the science indicates almost all of us, regardless of our genes, can systematically do things to improve our chances of a longer and healthier life. We don’t have a choice about whether we age or not but we do have a choice about how we age. There are simple habits that can help us keep strong, sharp, independent, and feeling good; Take Five to Age Well aims to empower people to adopt these habits over a month long period and beyond.

There are 5 areas where you can choose new habits:

Eat: healthy eating is good for your health

Our nutrition is our fuel for our body – we need vitamins and minerals to support every cell that makes us up from our bones to our teeth and everything between. Having a varied and nutritious diet is essential for our health. As we age it can become even more important.

Choose your action:

  • Breakfast: have a healthy breakfast every day
  • Eat regularly every day: eat regular meals and have regular nutritious snacks everyday
  • What works for you: good nutrition varies according to the individual – do what works for you everyday

*If you are taking part in Take Five and have allergies or are on a particular diet, please speak to a healthcare professional before making any changes to your dietary intake.

Drink: stay well hydrated for healthy ageing

Water makes up over two-thirds of the healthy human body. It lubricates the joints and eyes, aids digestion, flushes out waste and toxins, and keeps the skin healthy.

Choose your action:

  • Drink enough water: stay well hydrated everyday.
  • Reduce your alcohol intake: limit alcohol to within the NHS guidelines
  • Carry a water bottle: keep a water bottle with you when you leave home

Move: exercise boosts body and mind

You are built to move. Being active is one of the keys to a longer, happier life and can reduce the risk of everything from cancer to heart disease to Alzheimer's Disease. But, it’s not easy for everyone and we are here to support you to move more, regardless of how fit you feel right now.

Choose your action:

  • Walk for your health: go for two short walks every day
  • Get outside: take five minutes outside a day to breathe and take in the outdoors
  • Power: do 3 short (6-10 min) bursts of weight bearing exercise every day
  • Stand: Get up and move for 5 or more minutes every hour throughout the day. It can be easy to stay seated most of the day, but we know that this isn’t good for us – regularly movement throughout the day can help us age better. You could set an alarm to help you to remember to stand up and move.
  • Stay flexible: every couple of hours you are sitting, do two minutes of stretching and moving

 

Connect and Engage: make and maintain social connections for your health

Loneliness affects millions of people and the number of people chronically lonely has increased since the pandemic. This seriously affects your mental and physical health. We are here to help support you to connect and engage with others as part of your Take Five to Age Well challenge.

Choose your action:

  • Connect: call or meet a friend or family member for a chat every day
  • Know your community and neighbours: engage with someone everyday
  • Share a hobby: try a new hobby this May with others
  • Are you a carer share your action and knowledge from Take Five with the person you care for - taking part together is easier than alone

 

Think: use your brain to stay sharp

There are loads of things that you can do for your brain health – from meeting new people to learning new things to moving more.

Choose your action:

  • Learn: learn or do something new, practice daily and perhaps share it with others
  • Get creative: draw something everyday – you could do this with a grandchild or swap pictures about your day with a friend.
  • Play: do puzzles and play games every day
  • Be mindful: pause and take notice of your surroundings for at least 1 minute, 3 times a day
  • Read: hug your brain with a nice book by reading at least 5 pages a day
  • Write about your day: keep a daily journal

 

Tips for your actions

Make it specific: choose an action and make sure it’s quantifiable - for instance, you may want to eat 5 pieces of fruit or vegetables a day or cut down to 8 units of alcohol or walk for 30 minutes everyday. Whatever it is - make sure you can measure it.

Make it achievable: you know yourself better than anyone - choose actions that are challenging but attainable. Remember, you need to do this everyday so make sure it’s something you will be able to do.

Developed by The Open University, Take Five to Age Well is based on the successful Ageing Well Public Talk Series  and its Five Pillars for Ageing Well . We are working in partnership with Age UK and have support from many other charities and organisations supporting healthy ageing. The campaign will last for 30 days and we will collect information about how people create and follow up new routines and habits.

By taking part to age better participants will become role models for current and future generations.