Amanda Vesty
I am a celebrant holding ceremonies of all kinds including funerals. You can contact me here www.jackinthegreen.org. I was inspired to be a part of the Last Wishes-Live Your Legacy vision after attending my friend Annas’ eco-friendly alternative funeral.
As the founder of Ancient & Sacred Trees, I’m proud it has many thousands of members across the world. Ancient and Sacred Trees plants and protects trees in the UK and the Tropics.
A qualified teacher/lecturer Counselling Diploma as well as Reiki Master, Sound Healer and Shamanic storyteller who is a member of the Society for Storytelling. I’m currently studying part time for my Death and Memory Archaeology MA. I work with plant spirit medicine making tree essences.
I work with mainstream, special and further education. Also with many communities including mental health groups, neural diverse, elderly, refugees, disaffected youth, and young offenders.
As a modern culture we are not encouraged to be open about death and this has had serious consequences for both our health and the wellbeing of our planet. It is not dying that is the fear but the manner of our passing. A good death should bring new life.
Dr Dawn Gibbins MBE
The blossoms dancing in the wind making me reflect on my life and I feel so blessed to have lived the enriched life I have enjoyed so far.
For more than 30 years I have been an owner of multiple award-winning successful businesses that have bought me great material wealth. But the focus on wealth crucified my inner joy...
So, over the past 10 years I have been discovering and using tools and techniques to get me from business burn out and wasting fortunes to finding fun, freedom and fulfilment. I am offering the tools and techniques I discovered in motivational talks and workshops...
Nicole Van Zommeren
I grew up in Australia and after 15 years in the UK, I have recently returned to the wide spaces and endless skies.
A few years before leaving Australia on my round-the-world adventure, my father died after 6 months of fighting cancer. He was strong in body and mind, and he was determined to fight this illness, until the final few days when he surrendered and said goodbye to us.
Our family created a very memorable celebration of his life; we sang around his coffin at the funeral, just like we had in the hospital for the weeks and months he was ill; I hung the positive affirmation posters that had brightened his stark hospital walls on fabric for all to see at his wake. Little did I know that years later these experiences would form the cornerstone of my future work...
Jo Nicholls
My name is Jo Nicoles and I operate Three Shires Independent Funeral Services based in Congleton Cheshire.
My father died when I was just 10 years old and my mother followed when I was only 29. Through seeing their funeral services first-hand, I felt there was something missing that made me think I could do it better. That was in 2004 and it made me determined that I could and should look to do this as a career path.
A friend’s father was a funeral director and I asked him for help. He gave me some work experience which I then used to acquire work with larger funeral homes. After 14 years of this... in 2018 I set up my own business and have taken pride in giving people the send-off they deserve, whilst offering the families the facilities, service, and value they need...
Jean Francis
Having arrived into this world in 1939, two months before World War II began, I can remember ration books and gas masks! As a very sensitive child I cried bitterly when flowers in a vase died, not to mention the anguish of losing my darling Dad. The war years were lean, if we didn’t have it, my Dad would make it, he was a master of ‘make do and mend'.
I grew up with my brother and sister in the countryside, and our greatest treat was to go for walks with our Dad. He taught us the names of the wild flowers, butterflies, birds and trees, instilling in me a deep love and respect for nature that would stay with me always. It now gives me great pleasure to share this knowledge with my three grandchildren...