In May Nightingale House Hospice is supporting the national Dying Matters Week and they are looking for organisations, institutions or groups to get involved.

The 2020 theme of Dying To Be Heard will focus on how to help by listening.

Dying Matters is a coalition of organisations who think it is important for people to talk about what is important to them in relation to their death.

In preparation for this special week the hospice are hosting an information evening to help local organisations, institutions, groups or businesses put on their own event with confidence and have ‘the’ conversation, asking “How do you get people to talk about a topic that no-one wants to talk about? There are many ways and the more novel the idea, the less taboo, it is.”

If your organisation, institution or group would be interested in finding out more or feel you might like to be involved next May, you are invited to come along to Nightingale House Hospice on Thursday, 30 January 2020 at 4.30pm-6pm.

Kay Ryan, Outpatient Services Coordinator said: “It sounds like a morbid subject to encourage people to talk about. We all hope for a long and healthy life, but we are not immortal and unfortunately ill health or accidents do happen.

“We can probably all think of circumstances around someone’s death where we thought, ‘I wouldn’t want that to happen to me or, anyone I care about’ or ‘I wouldn’t know what to do if that happened to one of my family or friends’.

“Talking about these things doesn’t make them happen any sooner but it can help people think about what is or would be important to them”.

If you would like to attend, please ring Nightingale House Hospice Reception on 01978 316800 and leave you name and contact details.

Dying Matters is a national campaign that started in 2010. Each year hundreds of events take place as part of Dying Matters Awareness Week, which runs from May 11-17, 2020. The campaign aims to encourage people to become more comfortable talking about death and grief, and to sort out the practical issues about their own death: funeral plans, wills, organ donation, and end of life care. Above all, it wants people to discuss and share these plans so that the right information is available at the right time.

For more information, see www.dyingmatters.org