Why we need to talk more about death: the doctor helping people through their final days

Warning: This report contains frank discussions about death which some viewers may find distressing.

‘Dying can be as banal, harrowing, gentle, brutal, beautiful or frankly prosaic as any other part of human life’. The words of Dr Rachel Clarke – whose new book, Dear Life, is based on her experiences as a palliative care doctor in a hospice in Oxfordshire.

Our health and social care correspondent Victoria Macdonald has  been given rare access to the hospice where she works – to meet patients who are at the end of their life

And she’s been asking Dr Clarke about why we should all be talking about dying.