A good death. One without suffering, surely. Preferably in old age, comforted and cared for. Perhaps surrounded by our nearest and dearest.
It’s often described as the great leveller, but for some it’s anything but when the mortal fear of dying alone – thrown into sharp relief by the Covid-19 pandemic – becomes the sad reality. However it’s one that a growing global collective of compassionate citizens is aiming to address through the No One Dies Alone (NODA) movement.
The initiative trains and supports volunteers to act as companions to people in the last hours of their lives. Award-winning Scottish nurse Alison Bunce was among the first to pioneer the concept in the UK, but as her team kept bedside vigils in homes, hospitals and hospices she began to ask herself: might they help people have good lives, too?
Now, as Bunce relaunches her grassroots social movement as a registered charity, her notion of neighbourly kindness is reaching across generations from the cradle to the grave. “Being present and accompanying someone as they’re dying is such a privilege – it’s a profound, unique moment,” says Bunce. “But over the years, people were speaking to me about social isolation and loneliness, and I realised this was about life as well as death.
