Information for the media

Dying Matters is a coalition with more than 12,000 members to date. It aims to change public knowledge, attitudes and behaviours towards death, dying and bereavement.

The coalition was set up by the National Council for Palliative Care (NCPC) to support the implementation of the Department of Health’s End of Life Care Strategy. Its membership is made up of organisations from across the  NHS and the voluntary and independent health and care sectors. After the merger with Hospice UK in July 2017, it is now led by Hospice UK.

The coalition believes that as a society we need to talk more about dying, death and bereavement. Death is still a taboo – which is why our members are encouraging people to talk about their wishes with friends, family and loved ones towards the end of their lives, including where they want to die and their funeral plans. Our aim is to make a ‘good death’ the norm.

The first Dying Matters Awareness Week was in  March 2010 and encompassed a national media and PR campaign. We have now run eight Awareness Weeks, with each receiving more media and public engagement. Dying Matters Awareness Week 2017 was our most successful yet, with a phenomenal level of support from Coalition members.  At least 630 events were held to support the week, including information stands in supermarkets, town centres, GP surgeries and hospitals, discussion events, open days and film festivals, theatrical performance, cemetery tours and death cafes. We also received extensive national and local media print and broadcast coverage for the week, with more than 700 articles appearing in newspapers including the Guardian, The Independent, Daily Telegraph and The Times as well as in local and regional media, and we appeared on the BBC1 Breakfast News. 

The Dying Matters news team has compiled a wide range of background information for the media and can offer broadcast and print-friendly case studies to journalists wishing to report on the coalition’s aims and activities.

For more information, please contact Toby Scott, Communications Manager, on t.scott@hospiceuk.org