In the world of men's health magazines the stereotypical male is reticent, stoical and haughtily indifferent to exhortations to live a healthy lifestyle and to submit regularly to medical inspection. I wish that a few more like this would turn up at my surgery, in place of the intensely disease-aware and health-obsessed young men currently shuffling through the waiting-room doors.
Indeed I was beginning to think that the hard man who haunts the men's magazines had become extinct, when one turned up recently. Now 75, he had a stroke some years ago, leaving him with a hemiparesis and dysphasia. Although he is confined to a wheelchair, he still insists on coming up to the surgery, assisted by his wife. The effort required for such an outing — for he is always impeccably dressed, with collar and tie and polished shoes …