A good death, a bad death. It matters.

It’s 581 days since my Dad died and I can honestly say there is rarely a day that passes where I don’t have a fleeting thought of gratitude for Rowcroft Hospice, our local hospice who supported our family in Dad’s last year of life, especially in the weeks up to his death. I often think […]

Is social media really disrupting leadership?

This post is really a note to self and shared to gather input and feedback, partly because I fear the limitations of 140 on twitter may misrepresent me, and partly because I usually find that blogging something helps straighten my thoughts. I’m speaking at National Care Forum’s annual conference #NCF2014 this week and my session […]

Empathy, pain and action

I’m struggling to know where to start with this blog post, which if I’m honest doesn’t happen to me very often. I’m usually blessed with the ability to sit down at my keyboard, churn out words for a wee while and then sit back and edit it into something coherent. Today I’ve been procrastinating for […]

Mama lions, pain, privilege and justice

The more observant among you will have noticed I’ve been tweeting a bit about #JusticeforLB lately. I kind of figure that if you read this blog, or my tweets, you’re fairly used to me irritating you or over-sharing on things like death and dying. I know that’s not easy for everyone but as I’ve blogged […]

My 50 thousandth tweet #JusticeforLB #LBBus

Less than a year ago I wrote a blog post about my 35 thousandth tweet. That post focused on the inspiration provided by Kate Granger and Philip Gould and my personal support for their beliefs that we need to relearn the art of dying. This is something I feel passionately about, even more now than I […]

Taking responsibility

I’d like to share a story from my past, I’ll try to cut the detail and make it brief. When I was thirteen or fourteen I volunteered for a week in a local play scheme for kids with special needs. Run by social services to this day I can’t remember how I knew about it, […]

Fancy a postcard?

About two years ago I read a brilliant article Twitter by Post in which Giles Turnbull had taken twitter offline, replying in real time via the post. During 2012 I attempted to make more of an effort to send postcards, and I’m delighted that a few tweeps have been on the receiving end. I’m hoping […]