I worked for 36 years in Social Services in a large English county. On my social work qualifying course in the late 1970s I focused on dying and bereavement issues. Later I moved into senior management and specialised in child protection and children’s safeguarding.
Since moving to Edinburgh in 2022 I have volunteered with the local hospice as a ‘Compassionate Neighbour’.
I believe that the subject of dying needs to become part of life and community thinking.
My views on dying were greatly influenced by my mother’s death in 2014.
I do not have a religious belief in life after death but fervently believe that everyone has a right to their own views and beliefs and should be supported and encouraged to express them and to experience their own death as they wish.