As part of Dying Matters awareness week (9-15 May) Leeds Bereavement Forum held several ‘Death Cafes’ across Leeds. 

This has nothing to do with the goth music scene in Leeds in case you were wondering. At Death Cafes people drink tea, eat cake and talk about death.
 
The experience is far more uplifting and life-affirming than it sounds. The aim is to increase awareness of death to help people make the most of their lives.

The gatherings took place at Cafe Leep, The Courtyard Cafe, Foodworks Cafe and Oxford Place Centre in Leeds.

Discussions ranged from how bereavement could increase isolation and feelings of loneliness,  and how to help people come to terms with death, to practical matters like making a will and end-of-life planning. 

Ian McMillan, Yorkshire performance poet, produced a poem to mark the occasion:

Dying Matters is a coalition of 32,000 members across England and Wales which aims to help people talk more openly about dying, death and bereavement, and to make plans for the end of life.

For more information please visit: www.dyingmatters.org