The Art of Dying Well

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With parents, grandparents, and guardians all getting into the flow of the dreaded autumnal 'back to school' routine, it seemed appropriate for us to revisit a topic we first looked at back in September 2021 - bereavement in education.

Earlier this year, St Mary's University and The Art of Living and Dying Well (note our new name) held a summit to gather experts from across the sector to examine how death literacy can be improved in our schools and colleges, and how policies and training can be shaped to ensure that knowledge and visibility of a young person's grief lies at the heart of our response. 

For this 'Art of Dying Well' podcast, we want to build on the conversations started at the summit. You'll hear four important voices – a primary school teacher, a director of Initial Teacher Training at a university in the east of England, and two young pupils who suffered a bereavement early in their lives.

With thanks to:

Daniel and Matthew, primary school teacher Paige McCarthy, and Jenny Fogarty, Director of Initial Teacher Training at Anglia Ruskin University.

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Hospices - places you go to die, right? Horizontal in a bed for the last months of your life? Decades ago, perhaps, but the modern hospice offers a wide variety of services - all designed to provide high quality, compassionate care for the dying person.

In fact, around 50% of people that use the facilities and treatments go home at the end of the day. It's time to challenge the stereotypes, bust the myths and go behind the scenes to find out just how hospices work and how they are the jewel in the crown when it comes to end of life care.
 
For this special episode of the Art of Dying Well podcast, we visit a truly remarkable place - St Joseph’s Hospice in Hackney, East London. 

Most people want their death – or that of a loved one or friend – to be comfortable and reconciled. A dignified death. At St Joseph’s Hospice the dying person always comes first so why not listen to find out more?

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On this episode of the Art of Dying Well podcast, we're breaking the taboo around end of life planning.

Host James Abbott sits down with Matthew Hutton, the author of a very useful book called Your Last Gift - an accessible guide to getting your affairs in order.

Matthew Hutton is a man who wears many professional hats – lawyer, one intimately acquainted with drawing up Wills and administering probate; tax adviser; estate planning expert; farmer (!) and Church of England minister.

He shares his wisdom on topics such as the importance of having a Will, and setting up lasting powers of attorney, as well as examining the emotional and philosophical dimensions of confronting mortality, leaving a legacy, and finding meaning in the face of death.

Through their conversation, Abbott and Hutton aim to break the taboo surrounding end of life planning and encourage listeners to take proactive steps in preparing for the inevitable - ultimately providing peace of mind for themselves and their loved ones.

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The first Art of Dying Well podcast of 2024 looks at coma recovery, second chances and spiritual awakening.

James Macintyre, a freelance journalist and biographer, describes his extraordinary near-death experience giving a first-hand account of the life-threatening pancreatitis he endured in May 2023 that led to a five-week coma and four-month hospitalisation.

James was admitted to the intensive care unit at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in a critical condition. Doctors informed him that he was suffering from severe pancreatitis that could be fatal. After a difficult week involving blunt conversations with medical staff about the possibility of dying, he was placed in a medically-induced coma to aid his breathing and survival.

Whilst in a coma,  James nearly died when doctors performed emergency tracheostomy surgery. Thankfully he pulled through, but awoke to the devastating news that his mother had died while he was unconscious.

James credits his survival and new outlook to the excellent hospital care he received as well as his Christian faith. He now hopes to impart lessons about valuing each day, having an attitude of gratitude, and centering one’s life on eternity, rather than worldly pursuits.

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Traditionally November is the month for remembering; for remembrance services; the lighting of candles; special prayers and the blessing of graves.

In this special episode of the podcast, made in partnership with the Catholic Church in England and Wales, we offer an opportunity for reflection and remembrance in the company of Father George Bowen as he takes us on a tour of the beautiful London Oratory.

And on Remembrance Sunday itself we pause to reflect on the armistice signed between the Allies of World War I and Germany on the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" of 1918. Not only do we stop to remember our dead, but to hope and pray for peace in the world today.

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In part two of our special episode in support of Baby Loss Awareness Week in the UK, our host James Abbott speaks to two wonderful people who took their own trauma and grief and did an incredible thing with it. They founded a charity to help people in the same painful position they were in – a position nobody wants to find themselves in - facing the death of a baby.

Jo and David Ward went through the tragedy of the death of their daughter, Abigail, who was stillborn at 41 weeks, and they’re here to share their story with us now and to talk about their marvellous charity Abigail’s Footsteps set up in memory of Abigail.

With still births and neonatal deaths standing at around 14 a day in England and Wales – sadly one of the highest rates in the developed world - the work of the charity has never been more important.

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There can be few things more devastating than the death of a child. This incredibly emotive and difficult subject is the focus of this episode, which takes the form of two testimony-based podcasts. 

In part one we hear from Saskia Hogbin who tragically lost her baby, Josef, 28 weeks into her pregnancy.

We are releasing this episode in Baby Loss Awareness Week in the UK (9th-15th October). Now in its 21st year, the week is an opportunity for everyone in the baby loss community and beyond to come together to remember and commemorate much-loved and missed babies.

More than one in five pregnancies end in miscarriage, that’s around a quarter of a million in the UK each year, and although most occur in the first three months, they can happen much later. When you lose a baby late in pregnancy the grief and pain is visited on everyone and the loss is acute, but there can be shards of light in the darkness. 

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This episode has the rather provocative title Listen to me, I’m dying! But what do we mean by that? Find out as host James Abbott discusses with our guests how much of a say do we really have over what happens when we die? Will our wishes be respected? And what about those emergency situations in case we change our minds over what happens next?

Just like birthing plans at the start of life, shouldn’t we all have a plan for how we exit this world so we can be as reconciled and at peace as possible? Alongside this we’ll consider an interesting piece of research carried out in partnership with The Centre for the Art of Dying Well, to examine the impact of the digital world on death and grief. 

We’re delighted to be joined by Professor Julia Riley, who spoke so eloquently on the subject of Diagnosing Dying in episode 25. Julia is a consultant in Palliative Medicine at the Royal Marsden and Royal Brompton NHS Trusts and a Visiting Professor at Imperial College London. She founded the initiative Coordinate My Care with the aim of providing patients with integrated, coordinated and quality care they would prefer, particularly at the end of life. 

And making his first appearance on the podcast is Dr Shaun Qureshi, a specialist in palliative medicine, who’s been researching the medicalisation of dying and grief, in among other things, the post digital age. 

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This episode of the Art of Dying Well podcast sees us ponder one of those huge existential questions – a question that has surely preoccupied every single one of us at some point... What comes next? What is on the other side after we die? 

So our theme, today, is very much the concept of eternity. 

Followers of the world’s major faiths clearly have a view on the afterlife so whether our focus is the preparation to meet our maker or attaining a higher level of peace, this hour-long podcast is dedicated to finding out more.

Recently, the Centre for the Art of Dying Well hosted an interfaith event in Birmingham exploring whether a clear understanding of eternity can help us to live well in the here and now. The speakers were all members of the Birmingham Faith Leaders Group – a network established in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in New York – demonstrating, perhaps, that we are stronger when we work together, and in sharing our similarities we can also learn from our differences.

And it’s the Birmingham Faith Leaders Group that provides the three guests we’re speaking to today.

We start with the Catholic teaching on the subject courtesy of Archbishop Bernard Longley, the Archbishop of Birmingham, then we learn about the concept of eternity from an Islamic perspective from Imam Mohammed Asad, Lead Iman at Birmingham Central Mosque before rounding things off with an interesting discussion with Simon Romer, a Buddhist teacher who follows the Tibetan School of Buddhism.

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In this episode we speak to Dr Leanne Griffiths, the Dean of Sport, Allied Health and Performance Science at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, and founder of Sophie’s Stars, a charity dedicated to supporting family and loved ones of people diagnosed with cancer. 

Leanne has a very personal story to share with us which is bound up together in her role as the founder of Sophie’s Stars and her work at the University, as it prepares to launch its new living well service. 

At the Centre for the Art of Dying Well we strongly believe in living well throughout our lives in order to prepare to die well, so we are particularly interested in this new initiative.

Leanne started at St Mary's as a Senior Lecturer in Sport Rehabilitation in 2011. She qualified as a Physiotherapist in 2008, completing a PhD in 2016. Her PhD investigated the effects of neuromuscular electrical stimulation on muscle adaptation in stroke patients. Meanwhile in her personal life Leanne was coping with the sudden illness and subsequent death of her sister Sophie, who was diagnosed with kidney cancer aged 24, dying just months later in 2017. 

Leanne says: “I’ve never really known where to tell my story, or where I could share my feelings and have my voice heard, because I have not been through cancer. That is why I set up Sophie’s Stars.”