Funeral plans news

Just like the cost of living, the cost of dying can vary greatly depending on your location and research shows huge variations in the prices paid for funerals across the regions of the UK.

According to this year’s ‘Cost of Dying’ report from insurance company SunLife, the overall cost of organising a funeral, wake and administering an estate has risen to over £9,000 for the first time ever.

The way British society relates to death and dying has changed greatly over the last 100 years, with the First World War having a huge impact on attitudes to bereavement and mourning.

Former Changing Rooms presenter Carol Smillie has been training to become a humanist celebrant and recently began conducting humanist funerals.

As we get ready to start the third year of our fundraising partnership, we are delighted to announce that our donations have exceeded £195,000 in support of The Royal British Legion and its sister organisation, Poppyscotland.

We think of grief as a uniquely human emotion, but there are examples of animals experiencing suffering from the loss of a ‘loved one’.

Some people would love to be at their own funeral, as a fly on the wall or to join the party. We’re not at the point where we can attend our own send off, but video technology is helping create the illusion.

People can be uncomfortable with the idea of photographs at a funeral. But insensitive selfies aside, considerate funeral photography can provide a unique family memento.

Paying for your own funeral in advance is not a 21st century innovation. Planning ahead to cover the cost of funeral expenses can be traced back to ancient times.

Sending flowers as a tribute to the deceased is less common than it used to be, with many families now asking for charitable donations in lieu of flowers.

Whether you would choose to be cremated for reasons of cost or from concern for the environment, the one problem unique to cremation is what to do with the ashes.

Personal memorials are generally low-key. But monuments for some public figures have been designed to dominate the spaces they inhabit.

Each year in May, Dying Matters hosts its awareness week to raise the importance of talking about death, dying and bereavement with our friends, family and loved ones and the 2018 awareness is taking place between the 14th and 20th May.

Death is still such a taboo for British people and recent surveys have shown that more than 80% of us have never spoken to our loved ones about our own end of life plans. Whether it’s our own death or the death of a loved one, we don’t want to think about it however the reality is, it can be made more bearable by having a plan in place. Less than 1% of people who planned funerals for their loved ones in the last four years knew their wishes therefore by thinking about the send-off you want, this will give you added peace of mind and also provide your loved ones with extra comfort at an already difficult time.

Direct cremations, when the deceased is collected and taken directly from the place of death to the crematorium without a viewing or funeral service, are becoming more popular.

Up to 40,000 mourning South Africans have attended the funeral service of the anti-apartheid activist, singing and dancing in celebration of her life, her coffin draped in the South African flag.

For as long as human beings have cared for their dead there have been funeral directors, but the profession has evolved through history.

Most forgotten funeral superstitions had an air of the supernatural about them, but often they had incredibly down-to-earth origins.