Hello. I’m Miriam and I live in Wales. I have worked as a healthcare professional for twenty five years (feels unbelievable to me too!) and have always enjoyed the privilege of being able to share and be allowed into parts of people’s life journey.
The first death I saw was my Grandad’s – in his own bed, with his wife, surrounded by all his family with chatting, singing, laughing and crying. For him, and the rest of us, it was probably his best death. Since then I have been involved in other loved one’s dying, including my Mum, and it felt clinical, out of her control and stressful. At that stage I knew that I wanted to ensure that we, as individuals and society, don’t let death and dying be so clinical and medicalised and try and ‘take back control of our deaths and dying’.
Death and dying is part of life’s journey and I want to help people to feel empowered to take control over this phase of their life in whatever way they see fit and whenever they want to do this. This can be with making end of life plans, funeral planning, advance decisions (living wills), decisions about where to die, medical treatment that might be wanted and, just as importantly, treatment and interventions that wouldn’t be wanted. I will help access whatever emotional or practical support and guidance people feel they need or would like as part of their end of life Journey.
My role as an End of Life Doula is to support, guide and advocate for people, and their dear ones, so that they can experience their end of life journey in the way they choose and wish for.