Brum YODO is a growing group of artists, undertakers, food artists, hospices, palliative care professionals and generally all-round interesting folk. They believe that there is such a thing as a good death – but it will only happen if we, the people demand it. Don’t miss their upcoming festival ‘A Matter of Life & Death’ from 10th - 19th May 2019.

Parlaying a cancer diagnosis into an advocacy powerhouse, Cancer Badass AnnMarie Otis gives voice to people impacted by breast cancer, MS, and mental health issues. She established the non-profit Stupid Dumb Breast Cancer organization in 2012.

Elaine Kasket is the author of All the Ghosts in the Machine: Illusions of Immortality in the Digital Age. She writes about the murky and weirdly compelling junctures where life, death and the digital meet.

Dr. Deborah Forrest trained with Elizabeth Kubler-Ross and is a pioneer in the field of spirituality and dementia. Her personal experiences with death and dying and grief work began at the age of three years when she attended the funeral of her great-aunt.  It has continued over the decades with the deaths of her parents, two sisters, her husband and multiple aunts and uncles and cousins and dear friends.  

Dr Lois Tonkin is a lecturer, researcher, counsellor, and writer about loss and grief. Her work with grieving people, and with the other professionals who support them, reflects her understanding that grief is not only about our responses when someone dies, but about losing anything that is important to us. It may be our relationship, our dreams of having a child, our hopes and expectations, independence, jobs, home or health.

Catherine Betley has been managing counselling services for over 20 years and bereavement care services since 2002. She believes that grief education is vital to improving our care of bereaved people ad that everyone should be able to access timely, professional bereavement support if and when they need it.

Rose Heiney’s brother, Nicholas, died by suicide at the age of 23. She’s a playwright, novelist and a screenwriter for film and TV.

Diagnosed with breast cancer, Sara Cutting faced the prospect of losing her curly blonde hair during the rigours of chemotherapy. But rather than let it get to her, she decided to embrace baldness by taking a selfie every day – and showing off a spectacular hat each time.

Lara-Rose Iredale is a Senior Anatomical Pathology Technologist at a hospital mortuary in London.

Sarah Jones is a funeral director and the founder of Full Circle Funerals, an award winning funeral home in Leeds. She believes ardently that we would all benefit from speaking about death and dying more openly so that we are better able to support ourselves and our loved ones in life and death.

Tracey Bleakley is the Chief Executive of Hospice UK, the national charity for hospice care. Tracey is on the board of the Gold Standards Framework and on the Lancet Commission into the Value of Death. She is also Co-Chair of the Palliative Care Leadership Collaborative.

Dr Laura Jane Smith is a Respiratory Consultant working in the NHS in London. Her job makes her think a lot – about people, life, death, inequality and how things could be better.

After losing both of her parents to brain cancer in the last two years (when she was 26 and 28 years old), Rachel Reichblum started her Instagram account @ThatGoodGrief chronicling quotes that have resonated with her, reflections on her day-to-day with grief, and the professional resources she's found.

Sally lives in Switzerland with her husband and two children. She considers herself to be a realistic optimist and blogs as Life Lemonaid. Her Mum died on 15th January 2019.

The Fandangoe Kid has used her creative practice to process the enormous traumatic loss of almost all of her family. Having experienced society’s discomfort with talking about death and loss when trying to come to terms with her own bereavement, she seeks to use her practice as a platform for unearthing conversations around the vast and complex subject of grief, something that will affect us all, yet something we are still so ill equipped at handling.

Lucy is currently completing her PhD examining the Crossbones Graveyard in Southwark, London, where she also volunteers and advocates for it's protection.

Kris Hallenga was diagnosed with secondary breast cancer at the age of 23. After finding a lump at 22, living abroad in China for eight months and eventually visiting her doctor three times, Kris was told the news that she had incurable breast cancer. She founded CoppaFeel, the first breast cancer charity in the UK to solely create awareness amongst young people, with the aim of instilling the knowledge and tools they need to get to know their bodies.

Saima Thompson is the founder of the Masala Wala Cafe in Brockley, South East London. She writes about her experiences with cancer on her blog, Curry and Cancer.

Charlotte Philby is a London-based author, journalist and broadcaster. Her debut novel, The Most Difficult Thing, will be published by HarperCollins’ Borough Press in July 2019 and is available for preorder now.

Holly Matthews is a TV actress, award winning vlogger, positive Mindset coach, speaker, Founder of The Happy Me Project online course & LIVE workshops and mum to two girls. Her husband, Ross Blair, died from cancer in July 2017.

Scout is eight years old. She lives in London with her mum and two sisters. She likes taking her dog on walks around Nunhead Cemetery and enjoys eating chocolate chip gelato.

In 2016, Lucy wrote the Little Book of Maudism. The book comprises of ten lessons to live and die by from the ultimate death positive film, Harold and Maude.

Marley is ten years old. She lives in London with her mum and two sisters. She loves horses.

Jo Franklin is a Soul Midwife, based in Cambridge. She’s a nurse with over 20 years experience caring for and sitting with the dying and supporting their families.

Lucy Watts MBE is a palliative care patient, prominent disability and health advocate, activist and consultant. As a disabled young woman, Lucy has to overcome a wide variety of barriers, not least the low expectations of disabled people by others and the lack of accessibility, as well as living with a complex, life-limiting illness causing complex medical needs. Lucy is not one to allow barriers to get in the way and has created a life for herself that is enjoyable and fulfilling and contributes to society.