Stuart Oliver’s first toe dip into palliative care was as a Marie Curie Nurse for two years, on days off from full-time employment on Ward 6C at the JR. He discontinued this extra job, plus working in the White Hart Pub, Old Headington, in 1996, when his focus shifted to being a ward nurse at Sobell House Hospice. This led to specialist nurse posts in both the Hospital and Community Palliative Care Teams, that includes teaching all medical students studying in Oxford since 2001. He considers himself lucky to have found a job he can happily do till he retires.

Rose-Anne O’Hare is a retired NHS therapist and now leads bereavement groups, cafes and one-to-one bereavement counselling. She has a keen interest in the profound and often life-changing effects of grief, and how we deal with bereavement in our society, as well as our reluctance to talk about death and dying.

Her experience over the last 25 years has shown that grief is far more complex and long-lasting than many of us know. It remains misunderstood by many because of a lack of education and a reluctance to talk about it. This is why she wants to help open up conversations about grief and death.

Stuart Oliver’s first toe dip into palliative care was as a Marie Curie Nurse for two years, on days off from full-time employment on Ward 6C at the JR. He discontinued this extra job, plus working in the White Hart Pub, Old Headington, in 1996, when his focus shifted to being a ward nurse at Sobell House Hospice. This led to specialist nurse posts in both the Hospital and Community Palliative Care Teams, that includes teaching all medical students studying in Oxford since 2001. He considers himself lucky to have found a job he can happily do till he retires.

Wendy Halford is a former Registered Nurse who trained as a Soul Midwife in 2013.

She facilitates workshops in death literacy, The Lost Art of Simple Dying. Participants learn about the dying process, enabling them to support others with more confidence. They’re also encouraged to start conversations around death and dying in their own circles, including what may be important in relation to their own eventual deaths. Her favourite feedback includes words like, “You make it all sound so normal!”

In 2023, Wendy was part of the organising committee for Kicking the Bucket, a festival of living and dying, in Oxford.

Dr Yansie Rolston is a Health and Wellbeing director and works in Europe, Africa, America and the Caribbean designing, and setting up culturally appropriate health and social care projects for marginalised people.

Yansie facilitates workshops and seminars, and hosts community conversations on mental health and wellbeing; sexual and reproductive health; cultural contexts of bereavement, grief and loss; and menopause.

She is the Executive Producer of 5 documentary films on Grief and on menopause and co-authored Black Grief and Healing: why we need to talk about health inequality, trauma and loss.

Stuart Oliver’s first toe dip into palliative care was as a Marie Curie Nurse for two years, on days off from full-time employment on Ward 6C at the JR. He discontinued this extra job, plus working in the White Hart Pub, Old Headington, in 1996, when his focus shifted to being a ward nurse at Sobell House Hospice. This led to specialist nurse posts in both the Hospital and Community Palliative Care Teams, that includes teaching all medical students studying in Oxford since 2001. He considers himself lucky to have found a job he can happily do till he retires.