Sorry to hear that @kezo but, as you say, it’s good that you had the foresight to plan ahead. It’s amazing how many people don’t do that and think that a state pension alone will give them a decent quality of life in retirement.
It’s very true what you say about those in heavy manual jobs, but it’s also the case that with all jobs it becomes harder as you get older. I didn’t have a manual job, but I had a lot of responsibilities, both financial and for very large numbers of employees. Huge accountability and pressure that comes with that and I know that it would have become a lot harder had I worked into my 60’s, along with the obvious risk of a heart attack etc. That’s why I’ve got my kids to understand that whilst it’s impossible at their age to know what they will be doing in 30 years time, or how they will feel about it at the time, the one thing that they will want is the ability to make a choice. Relying on state pension as the first opportunity to be able to retire gives you no choice.