Advice, guides & articles

You often hear complaints about people staring too much at their phones instead of taking in the sights, sounds and smells of the world around them, but what if you could use your mobile as a tool to get you out and about seeing more than ever? Now we are well into Spring, and Summer feels like it’s just over the horizon, there is no better time to get outside and make the most of the good weather. To help us do that, we have checked out a few apps that will hopefully help you do just that.

The Coronation of His Majesty The King will take place on Saturday 6th May 2023. The following statement has been released by the Royal Family on their website royal.uk: "The Coronation Ceremony will take place at Westminster Abbey, London, and will be conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Ceremony will see His Majesty King Charles III crowned alongside The Queen Consort. The Coronation will reflect the monarch’s role today and look towards the future while being rooted in longstanding traditions and pageantry."

Lupus, also known as ‘systemic lupus erythematosus’, actually has an interesting etymology. ‘Lupus’ is Latin for ‘wolf’ and ‘erythro’ is derived from the Greek word for ‘red’. The disease was named this way because of the rash that was supposed to resemble a wolf’s bite.

When people talk about how to improve mental health, things like a healthy diet and regular exercise are commonly mentioned. While these things are important, they are not the only ways to improve our mental health. Engaging in creative activities on a regular basis can also help to improve mental health, brain function and our overall health and wellbeing, as well as being a lot of fun.

Ever since I was little, I’ve loved stories in all their forms, whether reading them, writing them, playing them or watching them. For me, reading a book is the perfect way to escape to a different world for a few hours. However, there are still plenty of people out there who rarely, if ever, read for fun. So, with World Book Night around the corner, this post explores the positive effect regular reading can have on our mental health.

Did you know that there’s a National Hamster Day? How about a National Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day? Or International Sword Swallowers Day..? There seems to be a day for just about everything, and if there isn’t one yet, then it’s probably just a matter of time! So if we can find the time in our lives to appreciate sword swallowers and hamsters, then it is only fitting that we acknowledge the planet they live on.

A funeral celebrant officiates at a funeral service and is usually not connected with any religious beliefs or practices. To help gain an understanding of what a celebrant does, we spoke with Caroline Kay, a member of the Association of Independent Celebrants, based in East Yorkshire.

According to Statista, in 2022 the average funeral 'send-off' cost people in the United Kingdom approximately £2,669 British pounds, with £1,064 of these costs going to the memorial, and catering costing around £467 pounds.* The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published a report in January 2023 finding that: "Funeral directors operating more than 4 branches charged their customers on average just over £2,600 for funeral services in the year ending 31 August 2022. This level is broadly unchanged since the previous year, representing a reduction in real terms, at a time when many other prices are increasing."

It’s nearly been 3 months since I launched Positive Vibes Only, a service set up to support people navigating adversity with a specific focus on cancer. I set out with one key objective, to support and help people shift their mindset through the challenges they are facing and create positive energy around the issue by utilising awareness, perspective and appreciation amongst other strategies.

A frequently asked question of our specialist Funeral Notice Team is what to actually include in a Funeral Notice? It is a frequently Googled question too, as one of our most visited blog articles each month is this one on ‘How to Write a Good Obituary Notice’. To help illustrate what goes into writing a Funeral Notice and how you can personalise them, we have found five good examples below that each demonstrate different elements that we see regularly in the Funeral Notices that appear on our site.