The Dying Matters Podcast

Gary Andrews didn't expect to have to face the fact of death as soon as he did. He was away on a business trip when his wife Joy died suddenly, and he and his two children had to face grief head on. 

As an illustrator and an animator, Gary had already been working on a 'Doodle a Day' series to share with friends and family. After Joy died, the drawings became a way to for him to process his grief and chronicle his new life as a widower. They've been viewed by thousands of people on social media. 

Follow Gary: @garyscribbler

Dying Matters online

Twitter: @dyingmatters

Facebook: www.facebook.com/DyingMatters/

Instagram: @DyingMatters

Dying Matters is a part of Hospice UK, the national charity for hospice and palliative care. Charity registered in England and Wales No. 1014851, and in Scotland No. SC041112.

For the first episode of our new season, we're talking to Dr Rachel Clarke, a palliative care doctor and former journalist who gained widespread notoriety as a leading campaigner in the junior doctors dispute of 2016. 

We chat to Rachel about what it's like to be a doctor who works with dying people every day, and why she believes it's so important for all of us to talk more openly about death and dying. 

Follow Rachel @doctor_oxford 

Rachel's book: 'Your Life in My Hands'

Dying Matters online

Twitter: @dyingmatters

Facebook: www.facebook.com/DyingMatters/

Instagram: @DyingMatters

Find Dying Matters events in your area with our Awareness Week Map.

Dying Matters is a part of Hospice UK, the national charity for hospice and palliative care. Registered in England and Wales No. 2751549. Charity registered in England and Wales No. 1014851, and in Scotland No. SC041112. VAT No 731 304476.

The theme of this year's Dying Matters Week was 'What Can You Do in Your Community?' It's a question we ask to challenge people to think about ways they can help the people in their lives to talk more openly about death and dying, and make plans for the end of life. Most Dying Matters events are structured with this goal in mind, but they will vary hugely depending on the community they take place in. 

Our guests this week are the organisers of one of the larger events in Dying Matters Week - the Pushing Up Daisies festival. Sue Robinson, Hannah Merriman, and Mary Clear are are all practicing death doulas: "lay experts" committed to accompanying those coming to the end of life, and their families. They started Pushing Up Daisies to help their community have more positive experiences talking about death and dying. 

Theme music is by Bernadette Ryan.

Find out more about Pushing Up Daisies: www.pushingupdaisies.org

Dying Matters online: 

Twitter: @dyingmatters

Facebook: www.facebook.com/DyingMatters/

Instagram: @DyingMatters 

Dying Matters is a part of Hospice UK, the national charity for hospice and palliative care. Registered in England and Wales No. 2751549. Charity registered in England and Wales No. 1014851, and in Scotland No. SC041112. VAT No 731 304476.

Most of us are more likely to only start talking about death and dying as we get older - as the prospect gets nearer, more familiar, maybe even more relatable. However, as we all know, death doesn't just come for us at the end of a long life. It happens to the young too. 

Our guests this week passionately believe that it's really important to include the voices of young people in conversations about death and dying. Lucy Watts was told that her health and mobility problems were life-limiting when she was seventeen. Ever since then, she has become an advocate for young people who need palliative and end of life care, arguing that they have specific needs that cannot be met by children's or adult's services alone. We dig into what those needs are, as well as Lucy's own beliefs around death and dying, and why she challenges other people in her life to think and talk about it in the same way that she has had to.

We also hear from Debbie Young and Joanie Speers, who worked with Gentle Dusk in Islington to set up a death cafe just for young people, providing them with their own space to talk about death and dying. 

Theme music is by Bernadette Ryan.

Find out more about Lucy Watts on her blog: 

http://www.lucy-watts.co.uk/

Find out more about Gentle Dusk: http://www.gentledusk.org.uk/ 

Dying Matters online:

Twitter: @dyingmatters

Facebook: www.facebook.com/DyingMatters/

Instagram: @DyingMatters 

Dying Matters is a part of Hospice UK, the national charity for hospice and palliative care. Registered in England and Wales No. 2751549. Charity registered in England and Wales No. 1014851, and in Scotland No. SC041112. VAT No 731 304476.