"By simultaneously increasing the amounts of telomerase and the resistance to cancer we are able to delay ageing in mice and also to extend their life span by 40 per cent," said Maria A. Blasco, from the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), who carried out the study with colleagues from Valencia University.

"These mice get to live for as long as the eldest mice in records of the same kind.

"If we were to parallel it to humans, then it would mean reaching 120 years of age and also to start ageing much later in life."

Now the question is what will we do in the added time?