AN initiative has been staged to highlight the importance of talking about death.

Airedale Hospital hosted an event, to coincide with national Dying Matters Awareness Week.

The theme for this year’s campaign was Are We Ready, and it focussed on practical and emotional steps people need to take to be prepared for the end of life.

Research has shown that only about one third of people have written a will or thought about their funeral.

And even fewer have considered their end-of-life care or made a decision about organ donation.

Fiona Widdowson, end-of-life care facilitator with the palliative care team at Airedale NHS Foundation Trust, said it was important for people to discuss the issue.

She added: “Through the event we wanted to encourage people to ask themselves ‘are they ready?’.

“It’s vital to get people to think about what is important to them and to ask if they’ve shared that with their families.

“We created a simple bucket list of what people want to achieve in their lives – it might be ‘to go to Florida’ but also such as ‘I want to share these things with my family’ – and part of Dying Matters Week was about opening that conversation.

“We also handed out colouring-in cards and asked people to write down things they wanted when they died, such as the music they would like at their funeral, or perhaps a celebration rather than a traditional funeral.

“Unless people think about what’s important to them and share it with their family and friends, their loved ones might not know what they want.

“It can also include important things like ‘if I can’t speak for myself, who should it be that the medical professionals should talk to?’.

“We also encourage people to inform their GP of their wishes, so the details can be added to the person’s electronic patient record and be shared with the professionals who will be caring for them at the end of their life.”

Dying Matters Awareness Week is organised by the national hospice and palliative care charity, Hospice UK.

The venture brings together a range of sectors and organisations related to dying and bereavement, including hospices, solicitors, funeral directors and grief support services.

Tracey Bleakley, of Hospice UK, said: “It isn’t easy to talk about death, but it’s important that we all do.”