So what exactly are ‘Cremation Diamonds’?
Whilst researching the possibilities of what I could do with my own daughter’s ashes I came across the concept of turning ashes into diamonds. I was immediately intrigued and wanted to know how this worked, so I thought I would share a little research that I did with you.
We all know that diamonds are made from carbon, right? Well, it turns out that the human body is approximately 18% carbon, and after cremation between 0.5% and 4% of that carbon is still present in the ashes, and if you can isolate that carbon, then you have the perfect base for the creation of a diamond! Using the Diamond Industries Four Cs; ‘Colour, Cut, Clarity and Carats’ you can choose how you want your finished cremation diamond to look.
So how does all this work then I hear you ask?
Step 1: Carbon Purification and Isolation. This is a lengthy process where the ashes are purified using a high heat in a non-oxygen environment with the addition of an inert gas to break down the carbonates. The carbonates are then broken down again to pure carbon in the form of graphite, and then the graphite is ground into a fine powder. This graphite powder is then refined and filtered during another lengthy process until it has reached 99.9% carbon. Finally, heat and pressure are applied causing the formation of a graphite structure. This process is called ‘graphitization’ and this is your base for diamond growth.
Step 2: Diamond Growth. The personal carbon extracted from the ashes along a small amount of generic carbon is added to a ‘diamond growth cell’ containing a diamond seed which provides the foundation for the correct molecular structure to grow. This cell with the seed inside is then placed inside a rather clever ‘HPHT machine’ that replicates the exact conditions that exist deep beneath the earth’s surface, where diamonds grow naturally in the earth’s mantle. Scientists control the HPHT machine and expose the growth cell to temperatures around 2500 Fahrenheit and exert pressure on the cell of approximately 850,000 pounds per square inch, and gradually, a diamond begins to grow, starting off as crystallisation on the seed, and eventually turning into a raw diamond. As an idea on timescales, to turn the black carbon seed to completely opaque diamond takes around 3 months but the whole end-to-end process takes between 6 to 10 months.
The larger the diamond, the longer the growing time needed, and each diamond is totally unique. Each diamond is authenticated as being totally genuine and usually range from 0.03 carats up to 2.00 carats depending on the choices you made using the Four Cs mentioned above. These choices determine the overall cost of your diamond, factors such as the carat size, the cut, the colour, and the clarity are all taken into consideration. Diamonds can cost between £650 and £17,000 depending on your choices.
It’s also worth noting that hair can also be used to create diamonds! the keratin found in human hair is around 50% carbon so you would need around 10g of hair to produce a diamond.
Isn’t it amazing how science can turn what is essentially a pile of dust into something so beautiful? Such a personal and meaningful treasure of your loved one, I really enjoyed researching this for you and hopefully it fascinated you as much as it did me, and if you were wondering, when I get a spare 10K I’m getting that cremation diamond made!
Announcing Bungards Charity of the Year!
Bungards are pleased to announce we will be supporting FLOURISH MENTORS as our local charity for 2023/2024!
Flourish Mentors started off as a conversation between three friends who saw the very real difficulties and obstacles faced by so many young women around them, and the difficulties they faced just navigating their lives on a day to day basis.
Deborah, Frederique and Cathy brought their skills together to create a network of women with their own life experiences who provide 1-1 fortnightly sessions. Both the mentor and mentee are carefully matched together. Sessions run for a minimum of 6 months and focus on the emotional and practical needs of the mentee. Their mission is to mentor and support every young woman (16 to 25 years), no matter what their background and needs are, to Flourish!
F.M also run one-off workshops that are open to the Mentees and Mentors alike. These workshops focus on practical skills such as interview techniques, CV building, stress-coping techniques, drama based confidence classes, finance and budgeting, UCAS applications, personal statements, anxiety and practical strategies on how to cope with exam and study stress.
If you are a young woman (or non binary) aged between 16 & 25 and you need some help working out certain aspects of your life please do get in touch! FM can provide mentors to help you with your Emotional, Physical, Spiritual, Social, Occupational, Environmental or Intellectual needs. You can contact them via their socials:
Insta: https://www.instagram.com/mentorsflourish/?hl=en-gb
Web: https://www.flourishmentors.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/FlourishBtn
Phone: 07487 405205.
Equally, if you have a wealth of life experience and would like to be a mentor please do make contact with them at info@flourishmentors.com or drop them a call on 07487 405205 to see how you could help a young woman in our community to flourish.
We look forward to supporting this wonderful new charity for the forthcoming year and watching THEM Flourish!
Goodbye to the Lovely mASCot Team…. for now!
Sam and Mimi kindly invited Richard to their base of operations at the Children’s Centre at Portslade Library. It was lovely to meet them both and to hear about the work they have been doing over the last twelve months and to also hear about their plans for the future.
It was astonishing to hear how many families they currently support but also to listen to Sam talk about her reasons to start the charity in the first place. It’s is lovely to see that the Charity has also been a huge help to Sam and her own family and not just the families they support. The charity also seems to be changing all the time as the families they support also change and grow with Sam’s own son also supporting the maturing children into adulthood with a separate scheme.
It has been such a pleasure to support such a great team and a lot of our clients this year have been interested in mASCot because more people are affected by autism than you would at first think.
We have not been able to support mASCot with as much practical support as we would hope but Richard was able to present them with a cheque from the money raised by all of our kind families who return our feedback form. The donation of £5 per feedback form is made by us to encourage families to give us helpful and constructive feedback that can help us always provide the best quality service.
Richard however made it clear that while our support has ended for the year he does hope that mASCot will remain a friend to Bungard’s for many years to come.
Well… I Never Knew That!
Did you know that the face of the dummy used for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training by millions of people worldwide is based on a young girl who was pulled out of the river Seine in the late 1880’s in Paris?
When the girl’s body was discovered in the river it was thought that she had committed suicide as there was no evidence of violence, and that she was around 16 years old. She had no name, no history, and no-one knew anything about her. Over the years there were many theories regarding the young girl’s identity with some stories saying she was murdered or that she was eloping to Paris from Liverpool with a wealthy suitor, how she met her demise is still unknown.
As was custom in 1800’s, her body was put on view in the city mortuary to see if anyone knew her, but no-one came forward. The pathologist on duty became entranced by the girl with the enigmatic half-smile and commissioned a plaster cast be made of her face. Before long replicas of the mask began to appear for sale and soon the young woman’s face became a muse for artists, novelists and poets alike, all eager to weave imagined identities and stories around the mystery woman that became known as ‘the drowned Mona Lisa’ and ‘L’Inconnue de la Seine’ or ‘The Unknown Woman of the Seine’.
Jump forward to 1956 when a group of physicians and engineers in Baltimore developed a new and far more effective method for resuscitation, involving mouth-to-mouth breathing. Medical students actually practised resuscitation on each other until a man called Asmund Laerdal was asked to develop a training aid to help teach this new mouth-to-mouth technique.
Laerdal was instantly receptive to the request, as well as being a toy maker in the 1950’s specialising in ‘Anne Dolls’ and ‘indestructible toy cars’ he had a strong emotional connection to this as he too had found his own child lifeless in water in 1955, after saving his young son from death he made it his mission to help the medical world and assisted with many ground-breaking projects. He used his skills to make a life-sized manikin that was extremely realistic in appearance as he believed that students would be better motivated to learn this lifesaving procedure on something that appeared life like.
Asmund fondly remembered the mask hanging on the wall at his grandparents’ house in Norway, and of being so moved by the story of the girl in the Seine that he decided to fashion her mask to be the face of his new resuscitation training manikin. And in 1960, the first prototype of ‘Resusci Annie’ was presented to the Baltimore physicians. Annie is still used now to teach CPR worldwide and It is estimated that she has helped more than 500 million people to train in CPR and has saved around 2.5 million lives in the last 60 years!
So now you know!
Golden Charter Funeral Plan Offer!
We have several families making enquiries with us at the moment about funeral plans, so we wanted to advise you that Golden Charter will be raising the fee charged for administering plans on the 3rd of April. So if you were thinking of coming to see us about a pre-paid plan, please call us sooner rather than later to take advantage of current admin fee!
AND as an additional gesture to our families that do take out a funeral plan before 3rd of April 2023, we have decided that you can choose either a free coffin upgrade or free service sheets on us!. You decide which offer would be beneficial to you and we will apply it to your plan totally free of charge.
At Bungards we are proud to be associated with Golden Charter, it’s the largest and safest FCA Registered company in the UK providing Funeral Plans solely for Independent Funeral Directors like us. Each plan is tailored to your needs and your budget, and once matters have been taken care of you have no worries about how your loved ones will pay for your funeral as you have taken care of it all. You can decide upon all the elements of your service, or just take care of the basics and leave some decision making to your family. You will have as much control over your funeral as you wish to have.
Knowing it’s all wrapped up and dealt with leaves you with the peace of mind that your family don’t have to take on the ever increasing financial burden of paying for a funeral, and that you have been able to guide them as to how you want your day to go.
For enquiries give Richard, Ben or Zoe a call on 01273 820018 or of course you can pop into the office for an informal chat and take it from there!
Alzheimer’s Research UK
We were pleased to find out today that our wonderful families have collected a total of £2,570.93p for Alzheimer’s Research UK! Many families choose to raise money for a special charity as a way of remembering their loved one and we see so many different charities chosen! and it is always nice to hear some feedback as to how the money raised is to be spent. Our contributions, made via our Love 2 Donate partners, will be helping to support early-career researchers taking their first steps in the field and helping to develop exciting new drug compounds which one day might form the basis of a treatment that slows or stops the progression of dementia… money well spent I think you will agree! Well done to all our families who have chosen to support Alzheimer’s Research UK, Thank You!
Happy Friday Everyone! Have A Great Weekend!
mASCot Charity Post
This year we are really happy to be helping support mASCot, a parent led local support network for families who care for a young person with Autism, bringing families together and enabling them to connect with others in similar situations to themselves. mASCot is always available, there are many opportunities for families to learn, socialise, access therapies and to take part in activities that are all specially geared for those living with ASC. It is all about celebrating wonderful diverse families and allowing children to be themselves whilst learning the skills they need to grow and thrive in the world.
We are asking you to keep this brilliant charity in mind and if you love fundraising, please consider helping them so they can keep providing the support and activities that are a lifeline to so many children and their carers. They receive no government funding and rely entirely on fundraisers and donations to keep going, and thanks to Sam and her team doing this solely out of love 100% of all donations to mASCot goes directly toward their projects and to supporting families!
If you could help by maybe holding a coffee morning, or a bake sale, a girls night in (get the girls round for a social and donate the amount you would have spent going out) a garage sale, an office collection, a sweepstake at work (guess the number of sweets in a jar type thing) or run an office tuck shop for a week, or maybe a sponsored event: a run, a walk, a silence, a hair shave, a beard shave! maybe even a pancake race! or simply asking your employer about their ‘Matched Giving’ scheme, there’s lots of ways you can raise a little and EVERYTHING goes to helping to provide the children with some of the amazing activities like the ones you can see below…
Thanks for your time, and if you would like to do an event please do let us know and we will gladly sponsor you!
You can contact mASCot by using any of these links:
For information: https://www.asc-mascot.com/supporting-mascot
To make a donation: https://www.givey.com/mascot
To email: info@asc-mascot.com
Ask The Experts!
So today marks the start of our new guest blog spot called Ask The Experts! and we are kicking things off with brilliant contribution by Brighton & Hove’s Senior Pathologist Mr Sean Didcott. Sean is in charge of Brighton Borough Mortuary and we have worked closely with him and his team for many years now, we hope you enjoy our very first contributor!
How did you get into your current profession?
I started working as an Anatomical Pathology Technologist (APT) at the City Mortuary in 2004 and, prior to this, worked within the pathology department at the Royal Sussex County Hospital as a Phlebotomist. I spent some time with colleagues in the mortuary, observing them at work and talking to them to get an understanding of what the role involved, and knew then that this was the career I wanted. Around the same time a position was advertised at the City Mortuary on Lewes Road in Brighton. Despite only having just turned 19 at the time, my application was successful and so my career began. I carried out my studies to obtain my qualifications alongside my practical training and became fully qualified in 2008.
Do you envisage ever changing your role?
Although my role has changed a lot since I first started working at the mortuary, with increases in management responsibilities and adapting processes in line with updated legislation, I wouldn’t ever consider changing my role. I still enjoy all aspects of my role, from attending the scene of a death to transport the deceased to the mortuary, to assisting pathologists with post-mortem examinations and carefully reconstructing the deceased enabling their loved ones to spend time with them. We work closely with colleagues from various organisations including Police, NHS, Funeral Directors and Local Authority to ensure that the bereaved are fully supported through the process and that the funeral can take place without unnecessary delay.
Are there any myths you can dispel about your profession?
There are some myths that frequently crop up from time to time and I think this is because of things people have seen in films or on television or read in novels. Over the course of my career so far I have provided advice and factual accuracy for many books and television projects, as it is important to me that our work and profession is portrayed as accurately as possible to help avoid any misconceptions. For example, many people think that if they come to the mortuary to see their loved one, they will see the body on a post-mortem table or pulled out of the fridge on a tray. This isn’t the case at all – all mortuaries have a dedicated viewing space allowing the friends and family of the deceased to spend time privately with the deceased. Many people also think that they will not be able to see their loved one after a post-mortem examination has taken place. Again, this isn’t true – although an invasive procedure, there are normally only two incisions made on the body and these are done as discreetly as possible. The APTs then take great care in reconstructing, washing and gowning the deceased.
What do you think you’d be doing instead if you weren’t doing this?
As I have done this job from a very young age, I honestly don’t know! Whilst studying at college I worked for two years in the butchery department of a supermarket, so I would most likely have become a butcher.
What do your friends and family think about what you do?
My friends and family have always been very supportive of my work, particularly as the on-call element can impact our daily lives. Within our household death is regularly discussed and normalised and I have always answered any questions from my step-children in an open and honest way; in fact, my youngest step-son and I occasionally undertake taxidermy together! Often, when people find out for the first time what I do, they usually react in two ways; they either have lots of questions, or they don’t want to know anything!
Do you want to be buried or cremated?
Cremated. This is a personal choice based on my own views.
What kind of funeral do you want for yourself?
I would like my family to be as much or as little involved in the preparation of the funeral and the service itself as they want; I would like the service to be a celebration of my life and a reflection of me as a person, including lots of photographs, videos and music
Tell me what your perfect day looks like!
My perfect day would be somewhere warm, near a beach with my family, with good food and good wine.
Show us your pets!
So April is National Pet Month, and also National Stress Awareness Month!
As pets are well known for relieving stress we can see why the two are combined, according to healthguide.org the benefits of owning a pet are huge!
- Pet owners are less likely to suffer from depression than those without pets.
- People with pets have lower blood pressure in stressful situations than those without pets. One study even found that when people with borderline hypertension adopted dogs from a shelter, their blood pressure declined significantly within five months.
- Playing with a dog, cat, or other pet can elevate levels of serotonin and dopamine, which calm and relax.
- Pet owners have lower triglyceride and cholesterol levels (indicators of heart disease) than those without pets.
- Heart attack patients with pets survive longer than those without.
- Pet owners over age 65 make 30 percent fewer visits to their doctors than those without pets.
One of the reasons for these therapeutic effects is that pets fulfil the basic human need for touch. Even hardened criminals in prison show long-term changes in their behaviour after interacting with pets, many of them experiencing mutual affection for the first time. Stroking, hugging, or otherwise touching a loving animal can rapidly calm and soothe you when you’re stressed or anxious. The companionship of a pet can also ease loneliness, and most dogs are a great stimulus for healthy exercise, which can substantially boost your mood and ease depression.
So with this in mind, we’d love to see some photos of your favourite stress relieving pets please (it even works with fish) post your cuties below so we can ooh and ahh over them and you can help cheer our day up!