13-19 May 2013 has been designated Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief Awareness Week. I was fascinated by an email I received via NHS on this subject advertising an event in Aberdeen today. I went along to the Bon-Accord Centre to see if I could get some more information.

The group organising the event is an alliance of organisations and individuals working together to raise public awareness of ways of dealing with death, dying and bereavement and to promote community involvement in death, dying and bereavement.

I spoke to a GP who is part of the group raising awareness locally. We discussed issues around self-regulation of funeral directors, organ donor registration and the most common issues people have with death and dying. Life is for living so it goes against every instinct we have to start planning for our death. Every adult, of whatever age, needs to look ahead and ask “what if?” An “Age UK” survey gives the following top 3 reasons why we should plan:

Save family the burden.

Peace of mind.

We’re all going to die!

Thought-provoking stuff and I have added the link to my favourites on the right hand side of my home page for easy access to remind myself to start planning! I hope you find it useful too. The link is http://www.goodlifedeathgrief.org.uk/content/online_resources/

The picture below shows some of today’s selection of “things I want to do before I die” from people in and around Aberdeen who visited the stand! I’m afraid I couldn’t squeeze in another “me too” beside George Clooney, I was pipped to the post!