Man beats long odds on longer life

An Epsom, England, man who 10 years ago bet that he would live to be 100 collected $50,000 this week.

Alec Holden, a retired engineer who plays chess every day and eats quite a bit of porridge, told the BBC that at age 90 he felt as if he “was going to live forever,” so he went to the bookmaking firm William Hill and placed his bet. The oddsmakers thought it unlikely and gave him 250-to-1 odds.

Holden attributed his long life to not worrying too much, taking lots of holidays, and the fact that “I keep breathing. If you stop breathing, you’re in real trouble.”