What would your wellness screening reveal? A journalist's sobering wake-up call

I have reported on health for nearly six years, yet I walked into a wellness clinic recently and left questioning how carefree I have been with my own body the whole time. The numbers did not lie, and neither did the specialist who read them out to me.

My curiosity had started a fortnight earlier, at a conference on post-partum haemorrhage, where I met Dr Mymoona Mohammed, the chief executive officer and founder of Taria Health, a wellness clinic. As she presented what her clinic does, I found myself thinking less about the conference and more about what healthy ageing actually means, and whether I was doing anything to earn mine.

That is how I ended up at the facility’s head office in Westlands, Nairobi, at midday, together with our photographer, Francis Nderitu. I had been slotted in for the session both as a patient and as a journalist. Dr Mymoona and a nurse were waiting for us when we arrived.

She began by asking me what my health goals in life were. It took me a minute to answer. "Every year, I write down my vision board, but rarely do I pay attention to what I wish my well-being to be like that year," I told her. She rephrased the question.

"How long do you want to live?"