The ESRC-funded Dying in the Margins study officially ended this week after 4 years (31st August 2023). Below are some of our reflections on this complex study. The various impacts of the work are still unfolding as Marie Curie continue to press for legislative changes at Holyrood and Westminster, and as we begin to take the… Continue reading
Blog by Ruth Bickerton, PhD Candidate in Human Geography at the University of Dundee Almost one in five people organising a funeral in the UK have notable financial concerns about paying for it[1]. This means that over 126,000 funerals each year cause real financial problems[2]. Funerals can cost on average in the region of £4,000 for… Continue reading
The aim of the Dying in the Margins research project has been to explore how socio-economic circumstances shape end-of-life experiences. Open conversations about financial hardship are important, and increasingly so in the context of rising poverty rates due to inflation and the cost of living crisis. Yet, throughout our study, we observed that there can… Continue reading
The following is an edited transcript of a conversation between Dr Marian Krawczyk and Carla Booke, CNS who is an MSc student in the End of the Life Studies Programme at the University of Glasgow and is currently conducting research for her final dissertation project. You can find out more about her experiences in the… Continue reading
“Total pain” is the term used within hospice, palliative, and end-of-life care to describe pain which is complex and overwhelming, and which encompasses physical, psychological, social, and spiritual dimensions. It is an attempt to encapsulate experiences of suffering that are unique to advancing life-limiting illness, the end of life, and dying. The term was first… Continue reading
The Dying in the Margins study, a project exploring the way socio-economic circumstances intersect with end-of-life experiences, culminated in a large public exhibition, The Cost of Dying, held at the Advanced Research Centre at The University of Glasgow (25 April – 5 May 2023). Over the ten days the exhibition ran, we received an overwhelming… Continue reading
This blog piece was written by Charlotte Luke, a writer from Inverness, who is also part of the RSE-funded DeathWrites network of 30 Scotland-based writers. Last year, around 8 months after my dad died in a hillwalking accident, I heard about the DeathWrites Network, a group of writers tackling the subjects of death, dying and… Continue reading
The Dying in the Margins project began in 2019, with the aim of uncovering the reasons behind unequal access to home dying for people experiencing financial hardship and socio-economic deprivation in the UK. Now, in 2023, we are thrilled to announce the public exhibition of the photographs created through the study. The ‘Cost of Dying’ exhibition will be… Continue reading
