Advice, guides & articles

Spring has sprung! Well, not quite. But as the worst of the winter weather has passed us by, and with both mornings and evenings getting ever lighter, we wanted to bring you a more positive blog. So, what’s more associated with spring than anything else? Flowers! Gardening has seen a huge upturn in popularity over the last 12 months due to the Coronavirus pandemic, with many stuck at home and unsure what to do with themselves. But what are the best flowers to plant for the coming months? In this blog, I’m going to give you some suggestions for what to plant ready for spring.

Sometimes, words aren’t enough. Someone you love may have passed away, or it may be coming up to a milestone since they passed; perhaps a year ago or their first birthday without them. So, what can you do to make your notice stand out amongst thousands? Well, that’s what today’s blog is about. Today I’m going to discuss adding a photograph of the deceased to the notice you’re placing, and how it can help make your message even more special.

Social Media is often a harmful place to be when you’re struggling with your mental health. A vast amount of the most popular accounts are all carefully curated to make out that their life is this perfect picture of happiness, and all that serves to do is shine a light on how imperfect your own is. But what if you could carefully curate your own Instagram feed to improve your own mental health? You’d be amazed at how much difference it can make to your social media experience if you fill your time spent on it with a mix of positivity and happiness, as well as people who acknowledge that it is ok to not be ok.

By now, we’ve all become used to living in a Coronavirus world. The last 12 months is unlike anything we’ve ever experienced, but over time it has indeed become normal for the time being. With the vaccine rollout across the UK moving fast and people turning one eye towards the seemingly imminent easing of restrictions, it can be easy to become more relaxed to the dangers of the disease. But it’s also important to take some simple preventative steps to help you avoid catching Coronavirus. In today’s blog, I’m going to be looking into that very question: how can I protect myself from Covid-19?

When someone close to you has lost a loved one, it can be hard to find the words to offer them comfort. And in such an emotionally delicate situation, what if you say the wrong thing and make it worse? Of course, most people will appreciate the thought no matter what message you send to them offering your condolences. But is there any set way to do it? And what is the best thing you can say? In this blog I will be looking at how you can write a condolence message.

Until we began offering up the option to add an online donations service to our notices, I don’t think I ever once thought about the incredible work done by Air Ambulance charities up and down the UK. According to Air Ambulances UK, every day air ambulance charities across the UK collectively undertake around 70 lifesaving missions; that’s around 25,000 a year. But I seem to be in the minority in my knowledge of the Air Ambulance charities, as we had 904 donations across 18 different Air Ambulance charities totalling £24,520. Plus, because we offer the ability to register your donation for Gift Aid, the charities claimed an extra £4,574 that they might not have got if the money was left in a collection plate. Air Ambulances are not like regular Ambulances; your local NHS Trust will be able to use Government funding to keep their road bound ambulances driving, but Air Ambulances are independent and rely heavily on the generosity of people like you and I. For example, the Wales Air Ambulance team quote that every year they need to raise £8 million in order to continue their life-saving work.

Ah, social media. 15 years ago, a face book was a collection of photographs used to cast actors for roles, and a tweet was just a noise that birds made. However, in the year 2021, social media is a dominant form of entertainment for many all over the world, and to some a source of lucrative income. In a pre-Covid world, we all consumed large amount of social media, what with there being so much choice available. But in 2020 and in to 2021 – with the vast majority of us spending most of our time at home – social media consumption is higher than ever before. Snapchat, Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, Instagram, Pintrest, there’s so much choice and something to suit the tastes of everyone. But how much is too much? And can too much social media be bad for your health? In today’s blog I am going to take a look into this question, which has become ever more prominent in recent times.

As everyone knows, planning a funeral is a difficult, emotional and time-consuming process. With so many things to organise, some things can find themselves left by the wayside until the day draws near. For example, what hymns do you want to be sung during the proceedings? Obviously, there’s thousands upon thousands of options available, but with everything going on, you may not have time to look through them all. In this blog, I’m going to cover some of the most popular hymns sung at funerals, and hope to help you pick some out that you feel are appropriate for the occasion.

Like millions of others, we were deeply saddened this week by the announcement that Captain Sir Tom Moore had passed away at Bedford Hospital. Aged 100 years Captain Tom, as he was affectionately known, stole our hearts as a national treasure. In this blog we would like to take a moment to talk a little about his life, legacy and the thousands of tributes that have been made to our national treasure Captain Sir Tom Moore.

I don’t think you need to hear yet again how ‘unprecedented’ 2020 was, or that it was ‘a year like no other’, but for charities up and down the country it really was something that just could not be planned for. So it was really important for us to make sure our own Donations service was being utilised by as many people as possible, not only to help families and friends raise money in memory of a loved one, but also to help those charities who were struggling though a year that most of us would like to forget. This article is the third in our series looking at how much money we have transferred to charities on your behalf in 2020 and will focus on the beloved local hospices that do so much for people in your local communities. If you want to read up on either of the first two articles then you can find them here: How much money was raised for charity on funeral-notices.co.uk in 2020? How much money was donated to the NHS through funeral-notices.co.uk in 2020?