Dying Matters Awareness Week 2026

Dying Matters Awareness Week 2026 will take place from the 4-10 May. This year's theme is 'Let’s talk about Death and Dying'.

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

Let’s Talk about Death and Dying

The mission of Dying Matters is to break down the stigma and taboo of talking about death and dying. But sometimes, it’s hard to know where to start. 

27% of people find it hard to talk about death with family or friends, and 30% bottle their feelings up. If we don’t talk about death and dying and bereavement, it can be harder to cope when we experience it.* 

Death, dying and bereavement affect us all. This Dying Matters Awareness Week we’re focusing on the importance of conversations about death and dying – with family, friends, employers, anyone in your life – helping you to get the conversation started.  

Because Dying Matters.

*This research is from polling commissioned by Celebration Day in 2025.

Family walking in nature

Events Toolkit

Thinking of holding an event for Dying Matters Awareness Week, but need some advice? Read our top tips and things to consider.

Explore the full resources
Dying Matters Awareness Week 2025 resources

Awareness Week Resources

We will be sharing downloadable resources for Dying Matters Awareness Week 2026 soon. 

See last year's resources
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Tell us about your Event

Each Dying Matters Awareness Week, there are hundreds of events across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Tell us about yours and we'll add it to our listings.

Submit your event
The hundreds of events taking place for Dying Matters Awareness Week 2025

What's on near you

Hundreds of events are taking place for Dying Matters Awareness Week this 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 an event near you (or choose from plenty of online-only events too).

Find an event

Read the stories

Throughout Dying Matters Awareness Week, we’ll be sharing 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 give our Dying Matters social media accounts a follow, so they’ll appear in your feed.

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.
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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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Donate

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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Grandmother and grandaughter hugging at home

Join Dying Matters

We’ll inspire and help you to have those difficult conversations in your family, with your friends, and in your community.
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