I’m sometimes asked if I have a bucket list – a list of things I’d like to do before, as the saying goes, I ‘kick the bucket’. It seems that it’s something that someone with an incurable cancer might consider. Typically, such a list might include aspirations to visit...
The recent debate in the Commons about assisted dying has prompted me to imagine my own death, an exercise I have found surprisingly comforting and empowering. Most people with cancer say they have thought about the possibility that they may die from the disease....
When my oncologist delivered the verdict that my cancer was incurable though hopefully treatable, my immediate response wasn’t fear or anxiety – it was the most intense loneliness. I felt, with his words, though gently delivered, that I had somehow been cast out from...
Wherever we are in our lives, there is always admin. Even the simplest quotidian tasks will require some organisation, most likely accompanied by paperwork, whether it’s taxing a car, buying a washing machine or paying a bill. And, I have discovered, admin is an...
During Dying Matters Awareness Week, I hope more people feel able to talk about their experience of grief. Talk can help us process painful feelings. Sharing our feelings can be a great way to offer and receive the help and support we need. Grief has figured quite...
The last funeral I attended took all of 45 minutes from start to interment, less than 30 seconds for each year of a wonderful life lived by the deceased. When it comes to death, my culture (white, working class British) doesn’t like to waste its time. “Why do I feel...