Diana Moran first found fame as the TV fitness guru, Green Goddess. Now 80, she still has the nation’s health at heart. Rosanna Greenstreet finds out more...
Tucked away in a cupboard at Diana Moran’s Shepperton home is a whole raft of green garments. “That’s Mrs Green’s wardrobe,” she laughs. “There’s no other colour in there and it’s where I keep all the stuff – my leotard and tights, trousers, sweaters, coats, cocktail dresses, even shoes. Mrs Green has a complete wardrobe!”
Back in the 1980s, Diana found fame as the leotard-clad, perky fitness guru who led the nation in early morning workouts on BBC1’s Breakfast Time. The colour of her fitness gear earning her the moniker the Green Goddess.
And although Diana turned 80 this year, she still sports green fitness gear – although these days she eschews her Lycra one piece for a tunic top and pedal pushers. She also has a new nickname – Granny Goddess or GG as her four grandchildren call her.
Age has not slowed down this glamorous grandmother one bit. This year, in association with the Royal Osteoporosis Society, she has published Beating Osteoporosis and launched a website with the esteemed physician Sir Muir Gray called getready4anyage.com. Plus she still exercises every morning, albeit in the privacy of her bedroom rather than on national TV.
“When I get up, I do what I call my monkey stretch. I stand by the bed, feet slightly apart with nice soft knees and bend forward from the waist, swinging my arms down towards my ankles before stretching up to the ceiling in one continuous movement,” she reveals. “Then I do upper body work, twisting from the waist and moving my shoulders and turning my neck. If I have time, I tuck my toes under the bottom of the bed and then, with bent knees, I do my tummy crunching while protecting my back because, as we get older, that’s often where we start feeling the aches and pains.”
Diana also walks regularly and as someone who has been diagnosed with osteopenia, she is determined to stave off the next step, osteoporosis.
“Osteopenia is a stage before. Osteoporosis is usually diagnosed when people fall over and I received my diagnosis falling on the ice when I was 50. I put my hand out to save myself and crack, I had a Colles fracture of the wrist.
“According to the Royal Osteoporosis Society, for every five women with osteoporosis, there will also be two men. You can’t reverse it but you can help maintain the bone that you’ve got and that’s what my book is all about. You have to do weight-bearing exercise such as brisk walking, running, jumping.”
Also, the key to keeping osteoporosis at bay is getting enough calcium and vitamin D. The latter proves a problem for Diana who, in addition to a breast cancer diagnosis in her late 40s which led to a double mastectomy, was diagnosed with skin cancer over a decade ago.
She says: “I always keep my face in the shade – hence the sun visor that is now part of my uniform. Many of us can’t be in the sun so instead, you need to make certain your diet is full of vitamin D which you can find in fruit and vegetables and oily fish like mackerel, or via cod liver oil supplements.”
This summer saw Diana nominated for the British Empire Medal in the Queen’s Birthday honours for services to charity. She is due to receive her medal at the Tower of London but doesn’t yet know which royal will bestow the honour. Diana is no stranger to royalty as she has met Camilla, HRH The Duchess of Cornwall several times through her connections with the Royal Osteoporosis Society, where the Duchess is president, and Diana an ambassador.
“Camilla’s very interested in the disease because her mother and her grandmother had it,” says Diana, who won’t be drawn on whether the Duchess is a sufferer or not. “She wrote to congratulate me on being nominated for my BEM. She has read my book and sent me a handwritten letter saying how useful and interesting she found it.”
Although twice divorced, Diana has a special someone in her life although she is quick to explain that they, “are purely and simply companions”. Adding: “I want to make certain people don’t think we are shacked up together. We are not. We are both in our eighties, but having a companion in older life is very reassuring.”
And with that, my time with Diana is up as she has articles to write and talks to compose. Whether you know her as Green or Granny Goddess, there is no doubt that Diana Moran continues to be a force of nature.
Beating Osteoporosis: The Facts, The Treatments, The Exercises by Diana Moran is out now in Bloomsbury paperback. Royal Osteoporosis Society website: theros.org.uk
