LAST Sunday I ran the London Marathon along with 38,000 others. At the finish, there were 9,778 people in front of me and 27,806 behind. Being 69 years old I felt pleased with this and also with my time of 3hours 46min, but in a wider sense not surprised that people of my age can achieve as well or better than those of a younger age — if we want to. While in London we picked up a copy of the Evening Standard, in which I noticed that a female chef had been appointed as head chef at the Savoy Hotel — the first in its 150-year history. Anyone who has experienced discrimi-nation will tell you how dispiriting it is. It even happens in my sport as well as business and wherever one part of society is blind to the contribution that others can make. Often this blindness is fuelled by petty self-interest — be it political or financial — or fear of the unfamiliar. As a result there is a reluctance to look for positive ways of ending the discrimination. Talking to a vicar who visits care homes recently, I was struck by her concern that the election outcome could result in there not being enough people around to fill the care home job market. An ageing population needs a lot of people to look after it and to pay for its care. Sometimes people accept the status quo and thereby effectively discriminate against themselves. Old people can 'write themselves off', not realising that although they have lost some faculty they may well have gained others — greater perception, for instance, which in our society should be a valuable commodity. As a father of two and a grandparent-to-be, of course I care about younger people. They need to be safe and secure, and comfortable with their place in the world community and certainly not saddled with the country's debt, or excessively taxed to pay for the aged. It seems to me that everyone is worse off if we assume that older people cannot, or do not want to make a contribution to society. Andy Houghton Whitchurch