There is a whole industry in rejuvenating products and services. Mostly they prove less than workable over time. But some still claim amazing results.

One such product, newly on the market, is Col-Pure Rejuvenation Face Mask. As we don’t test products on this website, or endorse them, we’ll merely quote from the press release recently sent to us.

Col-Pure’s Rejuvenating Face Mask is described as “incredibly refreshing” and said to visibly reduces fine lines and wrinkles, while plumping and nourishing the skin.

“Its formula of bio-active ingredients quickly absorb into skin’s underlying tissue, immediately plumping the skin to reduce the look of wrinkles, while improving the tone and texture of your skin for an overall radiant complexion and also boosts collagen production and improves circulation.”

Here’s the quick and easy secret: The face mask contains Decorinyl, a tetrapeptide shown to help control collagen fibril growth, improving firmness and elasticity of the skin. A recent study showed an increase in skin’s elasticity after just 28 days of use. Green Tea is a soothing anti-oxidant that helps skin fight off damaging free-radical cells and is one of the main ingredients. Finally, Tripeptide-3, an advanced anti-aging ingredient, mimics the body’s own mechanism to help produce collagen giving skin a more youthful appearance.

Aging skin can always do with a little help. Let’s hope this product can live up to its publicity.

Many elderly people believe they are no longer taken seriously as they get older. At times it feels as if they are being treated like children. When that person is the 81 year-old Queen of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth, it’s not so easy to patronize her.

ITN is reporting today that the Queen abruptly left a photoshoot at Buckingham Palace when a commissioned photographer, American Annie Leibovitz, asked her to remove her “crown”.

This minor moment of exasperation is now a big story across the media after the BBC released the footage to advertise its autumn schedules.

In the footage, the Queen walks into a room wearing a tiara — not a crown — and the very heavy Order of the Garter robes. Leibovitz then demands, “I think it will look better without the crown because the garter robe is so dressy.”

The astonished Queen icily replied, “Less dressy, what do you think this is?”.

TV cameras apparently follow the Queen leaving the room with an official lifting the enormous train of her blue velvet cape off the floor. The Queen then tells her lady-in-waiting, “I’m not changing anything. I’ve had enough dressing like this thank you very much.”

Leibovitz is famous for taking bizarre pictures of her subjects. She once had Kate Winslet repeatedly dunked in a tank of water, and photographed Clint Eastwood after he had been tied up with ropes.

One hardly dares to imagine what Her Majesty would have replied to either of those requests.

Annie Liebovitz said “She entered the room at a surprisingly fast pace, as fast as the regalia would allow her. “She muttered, ‘Why am I wearing these heavy robes in the middle of the day?’

“She doesn’t really want to get dressed up any more. She just couldn’t be bothered and I admire her for that. When you get to that age you have a right to have those kinds of feelings.”

The Queen was quite right to refuse being “uncrowned” by a photographer, but … oops … the BBC got it totally wrong.

The shot apparently showing the Queen “storming out” was really a shot of her coming in. The storming never happened.

The BBC has since apologized to the Queen. However, the true story is how an elderly lady was treated more like a child than the Monarch she is.

Varicose veins are rarely absent from older legs.

Conventional surgical treatment is painful and intrusive, requiring an incision into the groin, plus multiple incisions in the legs.

However, a new laser procedure means only a tiny incision is needed. EndoVenous Laser Treatment (EVLT) is carried out under local anaesthetic and takes only two hours in hospital.

A woman who underwent the treatment, writes :

First, they measured me for the stocking they were going to put on my leg afterwards, which would minimise any bruising.

Once in theater, another ultrasound scan was done of my leg to find the best place to enter the vein. [The surgeon] marked the point with a surgical marker pen and I was given a local anaesthetic, so I couldn’t feel anything. Then I was placed on my side. [He] made a small incision, level with my knee, and threaded a guide wire and then the laser through my vein.

I couldn’t see what was happening as I had drapes over me. I was given a pair of goggles to protect my eyes from the laser, then the lights were switched off and the laser switched on. The procedure took just a few minutes. Then, when the vein was sealed, [the surgeon] switched the laser off. Lastly, he removed the wire containing the laser and put a sticky skin fastener over the incision.

I then got off the operating table and walked to the recovery bay. I’d arrived at 12.30pm and was ready to leave two hours later. Initially, my leg was numb, but feeling in it returned after an hour or so.

It’s easy to imagine a lot of demand for this new treatment.

Joan Galloway has been nominated as one of the “inspirational women of the year”. At 76, she has carried out her wedding vows to her husband Stan to the letter. She has spent the past 20 years caring for Stan, 85, who has severe Parkinson’s disease.

“There are times when I wake up in the morning and think: ‘How am I going to cope today?’ says Joan, who lives in Lancashire, England.

“But when I was younger my husband always took care of me. He supported me, financially and emotionally. He was always so kind and loving. Now it’s my turn to do what I can for him.”

Joan spurns professional carers and nurses, aware that Stan would not like strangers to dress or bathe him. “I want to keep on looking after him here in his own home as long as I can. But it is difficult as he weighs 10st and can barely stand up. And I’m getting arthritic myself. It’s a struggle to get him in and out of the bath or to take him to the commode. It’s very hard to see a man who was so energetic and lively come to this.

“Parkinson’s is a very cruel disease in which your body just seizes up. Stan was in RAF bomber aircrew during World War II and was hugely brave. Now, he can barely move and struggles to speak. He’s also almost blind and very hard of hearing, both of which are unrelated to the Parkinson’s, but make it even harder to keep him entertained and cheerful.”

Joan has been nominated for the award, sponsored by the Daily Mail newspaper, by Stan’s lifelong friend from his airforce days, Alan Holmes, who admires her selflessness and devotion to her husband.

Joan says, “I’m really embarrassed to be singled out. Surely I’m just doing what any woman would for the man they love?”

Stan’s problems became noticeable in hos mid-60s before retirement from the family quarrying business. “He began to rush about with a very frantic sort of forward-leaning walk, which is one of the first signs of Parkinson’s,” says Joan.

“We knew something was wrong so he went for tests. But the news that he had Parkinson’s was devastating. For the first five years after diagnosis, he wasn’t too unwell, just had shaky hands and would struggle to turn door knobs or pick things up. But for the past 15 years he really has been very disabled and in the past few months he has got even worse. I now have to liquidise his food and spoon-feed him. I have to make sure he takes all his pills, which give him the ability to turn in his chair and pick up a book, although he is so blind he can only look at the pictures. Our children — two girls and six boys — help out, so that on Wednesday morning I can have my break and go for a swim. One of my sons sits with Stan and always tells me to stay out longer and go round the shops or visit someone. But I know Stan frets constantly when I’m not there.

“He loves having visitors and talking about the old days in the RAF. If friends or relatives can have the patience to sit with him, he really lights up for about five or 10 minutes. Then he gets exhausted and goes back into his own world. As a carer, I’m given government vouchers for four weeks’ respite care every year, which is wonderful. But I only take two weeks. Stan goes into a nursing home and I travel to Cornwall with old friends for a holiday. I’m off again in September and that break helps me to recharge my batteries and keep going. I just pray I have the strength to carry on looking after him as long as possible.”

Inspirational indeed.