Taking time to listen to a dying person's wishes

DYING Matters Awareness Week took place last week and was a way of highlighting the need for better language when it comes to death and dying.

- BY CHAPLAINCY SUPPORT COORDINATOR PETER O'BRIEN

We are surrounded by so much death and dying in our media - including news bulletins from around the world, films, TV soaps, and dramas, yet we seem so reluctant to discuss our own mortality.

According to the latest world statistics on mortality, one out of one person will die.

Satire aside, why is there a hesitancy to talk about dying and death?

During our lives we make plans for all kinds of things: what life insurance to buy, choosing holidays and dreaming about how we will spend our retirement days, yet how many of us have given serious thought about our own death?

We at St Ann's Hospice ...aim not to add days to your life, but to add life to your days!

We believe that living and dying are not exclusive, in that dying is a part of living and people with life-threatening illnesses deserve the opportunity to explore the possibilities of dying at the same time as exploring the options for on-going treatment.