Each year we mark Dying Matters Week at the Hospice by encouraging our communities to get talking more openly about death and dying, in whatever way works for them.

The theme for 2025 was ‘The Culture of Dying Matters’. Ahead of the awareness week we asked our volunteers to complete a survey about their experiences of death and dying based on their cultural, spiritual and religious beliefs.

We received a wonderful response and three of our volunteers have kindly shared their stories with us about the customs, rituals and traditions. Find out more about a Sikh death, a Zoroastrian death and an Orthodox Jewish death.

To find out what our other volunteers said about their beliefs, customs and faiths in relation to death and dying here.