Dying Matters Awareness Week

In 2025, Dying Matters Awareness Week took place from 5 - 11 May. The theme of the 2025 campaign was: The Culture of Dying Matters

For Dying Matters Awareness Week (5 - 11 May 2025), communities across the UK will come together to break the stigma around death, dying and grief - around the theme of The Culture of Dying Matters

Every year, people around the UK use Dying Matters Awareness Week as a moment to encourage all communities to get talking in whatever way, shape or form works for them. 

There are plenty of ways you can get involved and show your support this year. Read on to find out more.
 

Awareness Week 2025

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The Culture of Dying Matters

Pauline, Lawrence and Berna are volunteers with St Joseph’s Hospice, Hackney. And whilst they all have their own cultural experiences of death that set them apart, there are many shared aspects of dying, grief and bereavement that unite them.

In this video for Dying Matters Awareness Week 2025, they share those experiences and beliefs around death and dying, together exploring what the culture of dying means to them.

Watch on Youtube
The hundreds of events taking place for Dying Matters Awareness Week 2025

Events for Dying Matters Awareness Week

Hundreds of events take place for Dying Matters Awareness Week each year. They include everything from Death Cafes, information stands and open days, to talks, music and craft workshops - and so much more.

Take a look at our What’s On page to find out about all the community events people held for our 2025 campaign earlier this year. 

Find an event
Dying Matters Awareness Week 2025 - help share our social media launch posts

Help share our social media posts

Our Dying Matters Awareness Week social media posts share the thoughtful, poignant film – and we’d love your support to help share them far and wide, by liking, commenting, and sharing on your own social media.

> Dying Matters on Facebook
> Dying Matters on Instagram
> Dying Matters on X
> Hospice UK on LinkedIn

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For Dying Matters Awareness Week 2025, Hospice UK Chief Exec Toby Porter spoke to the Living with Dying podcast about why the culture of dying matters

Living with Dying

For Dying Matters Awareness Week 2025, Hospice UK Chief Exec Toby Porter spoke to the Living with Dying podcast about why the culture of dying matters, his recent experience of bereavement, and the importance of getting the right care at the end of life.

Listen now
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Embracing Diversity in Grief

As part of Dying Matters Awareness Week 2025, Hospice UK's Compassionate Employers Lead, Lucy, was joined by Imam Abdul Hafeez, Anglican priest Alana Harris, Heather Brooks, Bereavement lead at NatWest, and Nasrin Oskui, the Global Head of Wellbeing at Deutsche Bank.

They explore how organisations can embrace diversity in grief - because the Culture of Dying Matters.

Watch on Youtube

Read the stories

Throughout Dying Matters Awareness Week, we shared plenty of fantastic content on our Dying Matters social channels – including shorter versions of our film, videos with contributions from our member hospices about their approach to culture when it comes to death and dying, lots of stories from the voices of people all over the world, and more – all exploring the culture of dying.

We’d love you to see them – so please check out our Dying Matters social media accounts.

The many ways we say goodbye
Dying Matters

The many ways we say goodbye

Saying goodbye to a loved one when they have died is a very individual process. We asked Dying Matters supporters to share their stories around death, dying and culture.
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A Dying Matters supporter explains why celebrating and upholding her Grandad’s culture was an important decision for the family when he was nearing the end of his life
Dying Matters

We wanted to celebrate Grandad’s culture when he was dying

A Dying Matters supporter explains why celebrating and upholding her Grandad’s culture was an important decision for the family when he was nearing the end of his life.
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I broke five cultural rules to honour my mother’s final wishes - dying matters awareness week
Dying Matters

I broke five cultural rules to honour my mother’s final wishes

Marilou shares her personal experience of caring for her mother who was dying in the Philippines – and how she had to break cultural norms to do it.
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Books (and more) to help you explore the culture of death and dying for Dying Matters Awareness Week 2025
Dying Matters

Books (and more) to help you explore the culture of death and dying

Our book, podcast and film recommendations this year come from contributors including Dying Matters supporters, hospice professionals and academics.
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Ten people from a range of cultural and faith backgrounds, share their experiences about the culture of dying, and what it means to them - for Dying Matters Awareness Week 2025

What the culture of dying means to me

Ten people from a range of cultural and faith backgrounds, share their experiences about the culture of dying, and what it means to them - for Dying Matters Awareness Week 2025.
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How we talk about death and dying in my culture - Talking about death and dying in any culture or faith can be challenging. People from a range of backgrounds describe what it’s like for them, for Dying Matters Awareness Week 2025

How we talk about death in our culture

Talking about grief, death and dying in any culture or faith can be challenging. People from a range of backgrounds describe what it’s like for them.
Find out more

What else you could do

We can’t do any of this without support from you, and supporters just like you – who want to see the UK’s communities having open and honest conversations about death and dying. 

We’d be hugely grateful if you’d consider making a donation to Hospice UK, who run the Dying Matters campaign. You’d be helping keep the campaign running, so that together we can make sure those honest, open conversations are becoming a part of everyday life.

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It's never been more important to support our work. You'll be making a massive difference to more than 300,000 dying people and their families every year.
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The Culture of Dying Matters

The mission of Dying Matters is to break down the stigma and taboo of talking about death and dying.

To this day, that’s still applicable to much of the UK. But do we all have the same attitudes, views and practices on death and dying?

There are of course many differences in the ways that cultures and faiths approach and mark death and dying. But at their core, feelings about dying, and our experiences of grief, are universal emotions that we all share, no matter who we are or where we live.

While a friend or family member’s death can affect every person differently, studies of grieving brains have shown that there are no scientific differences in relation to race, age or religion. We can all feel the impact of the loss, helplessness, sadness – but we may do it, and show it, in different ways. 

We may all talk about death and dying in a multitude of ways, but we share a common thread.

In 2025, Dying Matters Awareness Week focused on how different communities and cultures in the UK feel, talk about, and deal with death and dying – and what brings them together.

Because the Culture of Dying Matters.

Dying Matters Awareness Week 2025 resources

Awareness Week Resources

Explore and download the official Dying Matters Awareness Week 2025 resources, including supporter and library packs, posters, reading lists, social media graphics, bunting, animated film, and more.

Explore the full resources
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Be the first to hear about Awareness Week 2026

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2024 theme: the way we talk about Dying Matters

Patricia is living with an incurable illness. Mumtaz’s husband Rasheeque died in 2021. And Lucy is a Palliative Medicine Consultant at North London Hospice. 

As part of Dying Matters Awareness Week in 2024, their powerful experiences explored how language plays such an important part at the end of someone’s life.

> Watch now [click or tap the image to play]

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