Brazilian CEO Ricardo Semler knows how to live life well it seems. He has a great take on life. Every Monday and Thursday he has “terminal days” and does whatever he would have done if he ‘got the news’.
Live life well – top tip
Living and dying well
Table for one
“Table for one”. It can be a liberation, an embarrassment, a statement, a wee shame, a treat. Like everything else in life, it’s all about attitude, perspective and most of all, choice. I’ve just had a birthday. I chose to go out for dinner on my own in a city I don’t know. I’d flown in, […]
5 conversations about death
Check out the Conversation Project in the US and next time you’re prepping dinner, dicing carrots or enjoying a bite and a glass with friends, use Final Fling as the perfect excuse for starting conversations about life and death.
How Alzheimer’s became a gift
This week’s blogger, Maggie, shares her experience of her mum’s Alzheimer’s.
“I’m at peace. I have no worries or fear. Death is nothing to be afraid of.”
Planning a good death
To kick off 2016, Jane Duncan Rogers ran a Planning a good death workshop, incorporating her own book, her Good Death Checklist and Final Fling’s planning tools, giving workshoppers the chance to chat, share, think, talk, plan and record. Here, Jane shares a bit about the session and the feedback. Our sell-out Planning a Good Death […]
Women Do Death Differently
10 years ago, it occurred to me that maybe women do death differently. That’s when I bought the domain name, Final Fling, in the hope that I could contribute in some way. We’re more about emotional engagement than transaction. We’re collaborative, supportive, we cut to the chase and focus on the important things. We’re good at […]
Death as a medical failure
9.30am and I’ve already read a couple articles about death as a medical failure. The thing is, the great authorities: professionals, doctors and surgeons who do such an amazing and laudable job to protect, cure and save us, also just find it very, very hard to let go. Maybe almost as hard as we do. And […]
Breast cancer and chemo – would you?
Breast cancer and chemo. There’s something you don’t want to be thinking about. Ever. But Flinger, Cally Nurse had to recently. We thought it might help others to hear Cally’s experience, told in her words: “Chemo is not for me I’m afraid,” I said to Mr Harris…
Get rich or die tryin – 3 top tips for the year ahead
As we set forth on the good ship 2016, if you’re focus is on how to ‘get rich or die tryin’, let us make it easy for you.
And to save you reading on… if you see ‘rich’ and think fame and fortune, you are lost my friend. If you see ‘rich’ and think happiness, joy, fulfilment, you’re on the right track. Keep reading.
Grasping the nettle… the future of palliative care in Scotland
How does the future of palliative care in Scotland look? Well, talking to friends involved in death and dying down South, pretty good actually.
That’s in no small part to the work of an active and engaged group of people who meet as the Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care and who run the website Good Life Good Death Good Grief and its events, like To Absent Friends festival.
Living well dying well
I’ve just been in London speaking at Living Well Dying Well’s conference. What a great event.
It’s inspiring to get together with like-minded folk and share what’s happening. There’s a swell, a movement afoot that might help us get back some of the skills in our communities that we used to have so that we’ll be better able to live and die well.
Give a kidney
This week Chris Burns-Cox talks to us about Give a Kidney, the charity he founded after his own amazing experience of donating a kidney.
“Six years ago I read in a newspaper that a GP from Surrey had given a kidney to a stranger …
Ageing or aging … same big issue
Ageing or aging, however you spell it (and both are right) it’s the timebomb of our era.
My recent post about caring for an elderly parent is the context for my continued thinking around ageing.
Caring for an elderly parent – where to start?
Caring for an elderly parent – where to start? That’s very ‘up’ for me at the moment.
We’ve been in rescue mode, driving an 86 year old for hours from a place of social isolation and increasing depression and anxiety to… well, you hope a place of some comfort and company but have to recognise it’s also in reality an unfamiliar household with different patterns, pace and rules.
Assisted Suicide Bill vote in Scotland
MSPs in the Scottish Parliament yesterday (27 May 2015) debated and rejected the Assisted Suicide Bill for Scotland by 82 votes to 36. Shame. The Bill would have offered people with terminal illness control at the end – the ability to get the help of a doctor to end their life.
Jimmy’s good death
Friend of Final Fling, Jimmy Stewart, is interested in achieving a good death. He became interested in knowing more about the rules and options around end of life after watching his mum die. He’s one of a growing band of us actively interested in managing our options.
Assisted Suicide Bill Scotland
The Assisted Suicide Bill in Scotland is going through its motions. MSPs will have a free vote in May. Many of us will live longer – but it may be quantity rather than quality we get. If you want to be in control, be informed and let your MSP know your views. It could matter to you more than you think.
How to achieve a good death
Does a good death exist? Peg, a music teacher with cancer achieved a good death. She went home. Her ability to be at home, spend time with people she loved around her, pass on a book of music to Hunter, share a hug, say out loud: “you’re special”… that was a good death . Death – and a […]
Palliative Care 2020
I’ve signed the European Declaration on Palliative Care 2020. It’s not the sort of groovy campaign slogan I’d have printed on a t-shirt; not a badge of honour to wear. It’s policy recommendation territory. Sorry – did I wake you there? But I’d urge you to read it and sign if you feel you want to. If I […]
Assisted Dying Bill – what next
The Assisted Dying Bill, had its first day of Committee in the House of Lords on 7 November 2014. A great breakthrough was achieved – for the first time the debate was about HOW, not IF, the law should change.