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Palliative care helps people live their life as fully and as comfortably as possible when living with a life-limiting or terminal illness. Carers play a large role in providing palliative care. Meg Brassil reflects on her role and experience as a carer and provides practical pointers that can help.

In a multicultural country like Australia, the way people grieve and mourn the death of a loved one varies. Dr Georgia Rowley from ELDAC shares her research and personal experiences on death, bereavement and grief and the myriad factors that can influence the outcomes.

In May 2011, my widowed mother, Donne, was unexpectedly diagnosed with late stage oesophageal cancer. Mum was the epicentre of my family’s world and my best friend. She had selflessly cared for my two small children from infancy when I returned to work and rarely a day went by when we did not see or speak with her. When palliative chemoradiation proved brutal and her strength failed, it was without hesitation that my family invited her to move in with us so that we might care for her. We had no inkling of how the future would unfold, or what it might be like to watch a loved one gradually die, perhaps in great pain.  We simply felt it right and natural that family surround Mum right until the end. This end came 6 months later.