The original concept and first Coffin Club was founded in Rotorua, New Zealand in 2010 by 77 yr old former palliative care nurse Katie Williams. Inspired by the NZ model, two passionate pioneers and best friends from East Sussex, Kate and Kate Celebrants, started a funeral revolution in their home town of Hastings where Coffin Club UK was born and is set to thrive and flourish throughout the country
Tackling taboos to enable a healthy mindset >
Featured at the weekend on BBC’s ‘Miriam’s Dead Good Adventure,’ Coffin Club UK is on a mission to empower people to take control of their final send off and address funeral poverty through education and examining all the costs involved. Their mission is to educate and inform everyone about all the options and choices that are available to them. By providing safe spaces for free discussion about something that can be a taboo subject, Coffin Club aims to demystify funerals, enable people to think creatively and ask questions and change the face of end-of-life celebrations in the UK. Miriam Margolyes was so impressed with Coffin Club when she joined one in Hastings as part of her documentary, she agreed to be Patron of this innovative and pioneering charity.
Did you know you can celebrate a life anyway you wish?
Coffin Club is all about the choices available to you for your end-of-life celebration. Did you know you don’t have to use a funeral director? Did you know you can have your end-of-life celebration in a barn, village hall or your back garden … or anywhere else you fancy? Did you know you can keep a body at home and can be helped to do this? Did you know that as long as you, in the final instance, opt for burial or cremation… virtually everything else you do to celebrate that life is up to you?
Each Coffin Club throughout the UK may be slightly different to reflect the community it serves but includes talks and workshops on all aspects of end of life celebrations, traditional and otherwise, including the opportunity to buy and decorate your own coffin. Expert and friendly speakers will include everything from different kinds of celebrants, crematoriums and cemeteries, natural burial grounds, parks and memorials, end of life doulas, funeral directors and more.
Coffin Clubs Provide >
- A safe and supportive environment for free discussion
- Education of all the options available
- Information including costs
- Funeral Wish Lists
- Coffin decoration
“Coffin Club really was beyond all my expectations. We all bonded and helped each other. I thought that I would be on my own struggling but no way we are a group on the same journey and making it a fun experience.”
JD, Coffin Clubber, March 2019
Coffin Clubs are now springing up in other parts of the UK
Coffin Club will be coming to a location near you soon! The mission is to drive a funeral revolution wherever it will benefit local communities throughout the UK. It’s the founder’s hope that in five years time every one in the country is full informed and empowered to take control of their final send off, in their own unique way, if they want to. They’re gathering quite an army of Coffin Club supporters and new clubs are already setting up in COLCHESTER | DERBY | HERTFORDSHIRE | NORTH LONDON | WINCHESTER and beyond.
Are you interested in setting up a Coffin Club in your area?
If you are interested in running a Coffin Club in your area serving your community whilst benefiting from well-established branding and profiling, then attend a Master Classes and founders Kate T and Kate D will share with you everything you need to know to set-up and run a Coffin Club and empower your clubbers in this one, guaranteed, area of their life – their death! You can attend a Master Class:
6th June 2019, 10am-4pm Hastings
23rd July 2019, 10am-4pm Birmingham
19th September 2019, 10am-4pmManchester
To find out more about Coffin Club UK or to book a Master Class visit the national website here! We’ll leave you with this wonderful musical documentary from the Coffin Clubbers in New Zealand. Winning a short film award this heart warming, life affirming piece has the catchy chorus ““Forget about the rub, build a box with love, love, a resting place to sing your song it’s a place … where life goes on.” Follow this blog for regular Coffin Club UK News!
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