Wednesday, 18 May 2016

Dying Matters Week Review 2016

Dying Matters Awareness Week 2016 is now over! We haven’t had long to put our feet up and recuperate before we’re evaluating the events, uploading pictures and launching a new Gallery tab!

There’s lots happening behind the scenes on Compassionate Liverpool/Dying Well Charter/Compassionate Cities. We’ll share more news on this once it is ready. For now, we would like to review our events from last week and offer a huge thanks to everyone who helped out, supported us or took part.

Day 1 saw us meeting the owls at Sunflowers Cancer Support Centre. In addition to meeting these glorious animals and having some fantastic conversations, we learnt a lot about these birds of prey that was connected to death.

Murray the owl

To encourage the owls to fly to the trainer, she would use some fresh meat to entice them. After initially saying they were chicken feet, and after I had to ask why the feet were pink and without claws, we entered a discussion about chicken farming.

Mango munching the male chick foot

We were told that baby chicks are sexed at one-day old. Female chicks are valued for their egg laying and tastier flesh so male chicks, who will fight other males to the death, are classed as a by-product. Male chicks are commonly used as animal feed and fertilizer. Mice are also fed to the owls on a weekly basis.

Thanks goes to Sunflowers for allowing us to host a table and to Hack Back CIC for letting us meet their owls.

Day 2, we held an open table in the afternoon at Siren Liverpool. The weather wasn’t on our side and it poured down with rain. We did have several people stop by and talk to us, taking away some of our new promotional goodies.

 Tea, cake, chat and promotional goodies from The Bucket Project

Free cake helped and we had some staff members from different floors walking past twice, before coming back and asking about the Day of the Dead display and engaging in conversation with us.

Mini Day of the Dead display at Siren

Thank you to Siren Liverpool for hosting us and providing delicious tea, coffee and cake. Special note to our members Bette and Margaret from Co-Op Funeralcare Garston for supporting us at three of our events.

On Day 3 we attended an art group, back at Sunflowers Cancer Support on Aigburth Road. After introducing the project and showing them some of our promotional items and decorated Day of the Dead skulls, we had some fascinating conversations. Shakespeare was mentioned, how surviving cancer can change your outlook and how we communicate with children about death. We discussed the collaborative art piece from the World Museum and how art can be therapeutic and help when having difficult conversations.

Artists at Sunflowers

Day 4 at the World Museum Liverpool for Meet the Mayas with a bit of Day of the Dead thrown in. We had another ten people contributing to the collaborative art piece, which is almost finished. Plans are in place to have it framed and hung on display within the Treasure House Theatre of the museum, with a plaque thanking everyone who took part.




More people adding their unique touch to our art piece and Adam explaining about the Mayas




After colouring in, we were told about the Mayan skulls and shared wild theories from Ancient Aliens. As most of our guests were hoping to catch a show in the Planetarium, and then missed it due to our long and engaging chat, Adam (our main man from the museum) arranged a private, advance viewing of a new show just for us.

It was an interesting and absorbing show with many detailed facts flowing at such a pace, it was hard to not get lost in the twirling constellations above. It was of particular interest when they started to talk about life-spans of planets, stars, galaxies and the whole universe and explained that these magnificent things will also die one day. Nothing is immortal. It was quite a humbling experience that left you with a greater wonder of life and our place in it. Highly recommend anyone visiting the World Museum to book tickets to this wondrous show.



Viewing the VIP Planetarium show on the left and capturing 'energy' or possibly lighting from the projectors!





Massive thanks to Adam for supporting the event, delivering a talk on the Mayas and treating us all to a VIP Planetarium experience on the day.

Our almost complete collaborative Day of the Dead art piece

Day 5, and our final day of events, was at Marie Curie Hospice Liverpool for It Takes a Community. This was a celebratory evening which gave thanks to the many organisations and people across the city who have supported the hospice in the last twelve months.

Just a sample of organisations that have helped over the last 12 months

Information tables from each of the teams in the hospice were on display with staff and volunteers on hand to chat about their roles in the hospice and to find out how attendees have helped out Marie Curie. The Patient and Family Support Team brought along their therapy terrapin, who was a hit with the kids.



Fundraising table to the left and a schoolboy holding the therapy terrapin






The tour of the hospice was informative, even to someone who has worked there for almost five years! I never noticed how the beautiful stained glass in the Reflection Room, depicted the changing seasons, despite walking past this hundreds of times.

Seasonal stained glass on the informative hospice tour

Our table stood out, and not just thanks to the spider web tablecloth, but more for our Topic of Death Cards. We love hearing what other people interpret the images as, and will be launching another new tab on our blog, which will offer our interpretations and ask you to submit yours. Hopefully, together we can encourage and inspire other people to be more comfortable talking about death, dying and loss.




Table and stand display form The Bucket Project and people below getting involved with the Topic of Death Cards and Day of the Dead display


Thank you to everybody who joined us, supported, hosted or promoted us throughout Dying Matters Week 2016. We’ll hopefully be back with more events this summer. You can view all of the photographs from Dying Matters Week 2016 on our new Gallery.

Monday, 9 May 2016

Meet the Owls



Day 1 of Dying Matters Week - 9th May 2016

Today we attended a Meet the Owls session, organised by Sunflowers Cancer Support, where we also hosted an information stand. Hack Back CIC were the wonderful group who brought their three mesmerising owls; Murray (Burrowing Owl), Idris (African Spotted Eagle Owl) and Mango (Barn Owl), pictured below.




Seven people attended and we all enjoyed watching the owls flutter across the room, landing on the arms of those lucky enough to be wearing the special glove. We had some interesting conversations about Day of the Dead and remembering lost loved ones. One attendee had lost four close family members in the past three years, yet was able to freely discuss death and share happy memories of those that had gone before him and he credited this to an open and supportive family.


We’re hoping to collect some of your personal stories throughout this week, and beyond. Tomorrow will see us at Siren with an open table displaying our new promotional items, Topic of Death Cards, newsletters and practical guide and a story board to collate your experiences. If you can’t make any events this week, but would like to share your story, please email rachael.mcmeacock@mariecurie.org.uk


Hack Back CIC run a number of programmes for carers, people suffering with depression /anxiety, children, young people, adults and families with conditions within autistic spectrum disorders and cancer patients and survivors.

These programmes are aimed at giving people an exciting and enjoyable experience which will have a positive impact on well-being, self-esteem and confidence. The programmes integrate brief solution focussed therapy with green therapy and interaction with the birds.

Here are some more pictures from today:

 






Sunflowers provide advice and guidance services, counselling, alternative therapies and group support sessions in a welcoming and safe environment. Their service is confidential, free and led by a team of professionals.

The Sunflowers team are experienced in the emotions and practical support needed following a cancer diagnosis. Quite often, their support is nothing more than a listening ear in their informal ‘drop in’ centre.


They are passionate about helping others affected by a diagnosis of cancer and their shared experiences help to build a strong community in the fight against cancer. This is particularly important in Merseyside with the highest incidence of cancer in the UK.