s.owens's blog

If people who have a passion for something come together and work collaboratively, in partnership and with that passion at the heart of that they do then much more can be achieved collectively than the sum of individual activities. Our Staffordshire Dying Matters week in May this year is an example of this.

Within Derbyshire, we are building our compassionate communities and enhancing our partnership working across a range of acute, community, voluntary, charitable and educational services within Derbyshire Alliance for End of Life Care. This partnership of organisations across Derbyshire supports education and quality within end of life care.

The theme ‘what can you do’ for Dying Matters Awareness 2018 enabled the members of the Derbyshire Alliance to hold different events in their organisations, supported by the group.

The Gateshead Specialist Palliative Care Team are delighted to report that “Dying Matters” week, 14^th – 20^th May 2018, was a resounding success.

We held our first ‘Death Café’ in partnership with Age UK in their shop in Gateshead. The objective of this was to increase awareness of death with a view to helping people make the most of their (finite) lives. This was well attended by the general public where a group directed discussion of death with no agenda, objectives or themes took place.

by Gemma Allen

By Kim Lampard 

If you were planning a wedding, how would it be?

Would you want a religious service, in church with hymns and prayers and everyone dressed up for the occasion? Or is it more your style to hire a tepee in a field and ask friends and family to share a barbecue beneath the stars?

The peculiar British trait of “getting on with it” without moaning and making a fuss is one of our greatest strengths.

But it also leads to one of our greatest weaknesses says Catherine Powell, Customer Experience Director of the UK’s leading direct cremation provider Pure Cremation.

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The intensity of my experiences didn’t stop when Viv died as I found myself at odds with my brothers. We have always got on a family supporting each other in different ways, while recognising our differences.  I resented the ease with which they settled and chatted in Viv’s house which had been, so recently, an environment dominated by women supporting their friend; a space where a powerful transition from life to death had been enacted.