Noeline Brown and Allen Duff, Shellharbour U3A president. Picture: GREG TOTMAN
Television icon Noeline Brown yesterday urged people of her generation to consider hitting the books.
"A lot of people in our age group didn't actually get through school, they left at 14 or 15 without formal education," the 74-year-old actress said yesterday. "The word university probably fills a lot of people with dread."
She said the "beaut thing" about the University of Third Age (U3A) movement was that people of all ages were encouraged to learn something new and challenging as they got older, regardless of their background and education. Ms Brown, who is Australia's first Ambassador for Ageing, visited Shellharbour yesterday as part of Seniors Week celebrations.
She was guest speaker at the Seniors Week open day organised by Shellharbour U3A.
The U3A groups "just show the thirst people have for learning and getting involved".
"It's also an opportunity to make new friends; sometimes at our age our old ones disappear and go live on the Gold Coast."