“The importance of living every precious day to the full.” Besides being great entertainment, Dead Good delivers a powerful message. Life IS precious and so many of us don’t realise it until it’s too late.

That’s what drives our mission. We want to encourage everyone to recognise that life is finite, that we don’t know what’s round the corner, that we might need to do some planning to ensure that we have the maximum quality of life possible in the time we have left.

Like many others, I’ve experienced death and dying up close: my late husband, my best friend and then my mother all died within a few years of each other. All had a unique experience and each had their own way of dealing with a terminal diagnosis.

My late husband Geoff’s experience of living with dementia led me to set up Mycarematters, a not-for-profit social enterprise developing products and services to improve people’s experience of care in any care setting. All of their experiences, together with innumerable others, informed our current project the My Future Care Handbook and Buddy Service.

Yes, it is a resource to help people consider what’s important to them as they approach their end of life, but it also encourages people to think about how to live well. We support people to think about the things they still want to do, offer tips on healthy eating and keeping fit, as well as providing jargon-free information on documents like lasting power of attorney, advance directives and funeral preferences.

I heard a woman on the radio recently recount her near death experience during a plane crash. Her main concern was about all the things her mother was going to have to sort out, and how she could have made it so much easier if she’d known this was going to happen! She survived and I like to think she did immediately set things in order. As she learned during that traumatic experience, even if we don’t do these things for ourselves, we do it as a gift to our family.

Meanwhile, having had the live performance of Dead Good I booked to see cancelled due to extreme weather earlier this year, I shall be in the front row for the online performance on 30th June – I can’t wait! (Find out more)

For further information about the My Future Care Handbook and Buddy Service visit https://www.myfuturecare.org/

Zoe Harris