Truro, The Cornish Funeral Company, Cornwall

We are a husband and wife team living just outside Truro. Coming from a practical and creative background, we never envisaged ourselves starting a funeral facilitation business. However, the sudden and unexpected death of my (Katrina’s) father left us wanting to send him off in a style which suited his personality and so we chose to plan and manage his funeral ourselves. It was a steep learning curve about the processes following the death of a loved one and the amount of thought, planning and specific knowledge that are required.

We were relieved to find that the necessary paperwork and service arrangements were pretty straightforward. We met with surprise as we dealt with officialdom as there appeared to be no precedent for planning a DIY funeral. Shortly afterwards, a friend died leaving no family within the UK, which raised issues regarding planning a funeral for someone who had no means with which to pay. A county council poverty funeral was arranged – it was impersonal and did not allow us to return the ashes to our friend’s teenage son in Canada. In spite of our best efforts, we were unsuccessful in finding sufficient money and the whole experience informed us about the increasing issue of funeral poverty. Over the following months we researched and discussed funeral planning, finally deciding that we want to share our knowledge to help others to be more personally involved. Hence we have set up The Cornish Funeral Company to offer our services as funeral facilitators, helping others to arrange funerals for their loved ones as well as possibly making plans for themselves. We are particularly committed to the concept helping to break the taboo of death and to offer affordable and environmentally-friendly funerals.