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!
Brighton Local Funeral Director wins Matthew Gallagher Award.
Zoe Walker with the Matthew Gallagher Award
Zoe Walker, of Bungard Funeral Directors, in Hove has become the 2nd ever winner of the prestigious ‘Matthew Gallagher Achievement Award’ at the Independent Funeral Director Awards Ceremony held earlier this month in Edinburgh.
The Matthew Gallagher Achievement Award is for outstanding students who have studied towards their professional qualifications whilst facing difficult challenges, how they dealt with those challenges, and how they have progressed within their role.
Richard Whittle, the fifth generation and current Managing Director of Bungards said:
“We were all super proud that Zoe was shortlisted and then presented with the award by the college and Matthew’s family.
Zoe has impressed with her dedication to improving her knowledge and skills and the way she has seamlessly stepped up to support the business and more importantly our families in recent months.
As a long established family business we are committed to supporting our staff throughout difficult times but to also ensure they are highly trained and qualified because we want to provide the best service we possibly can to every family we look after.”
The Matthew Gallagher award was set up by Pat and Sandy Gallagher after the sad passing of their son Matthew towards the end of 2019. Matthew was an active, and well liked Funeral Director serving families across Sussex and was heavily involved with the Independent Funeral Directors College.
The award ceremony was attended in person at the Dalmahoy Hotel in Edinburgh following on from the SAIF Trade Body National Executive Meeting.
Bungard’s have been serving the local community for 116 years and is a five generation family business. They have remained in their prominent location on Sackville Road for all of those years and prior to being Funeral Directors were stonemasons based on Old Shoreham Road
Zoe being presented award by Patrick Gallagher
Zoe receiving her Certificates today!
We are thrilled to share that Zoe Walker of the Bungard Funeral Directors team has recently passed industry exams set by The Independent Funeral Directors (IFD) College. Founded in November 1995, the college was born from a need to provide vocational training to those employed in the independent sector of the funeral profession, and who were members of the National Society of Allied & Independent Funeral Directors (SAIF).Five simple ways that You can help to support the local businesses in Your area!
5 Easy ways of supporting your local independent businesses that only take a few minutes of your time and could go a long way to helping out!
- Write a positive Google review ………………………………..£0.00
- Tell your friends & family! ………………………………………£0.00
- Follow & share their Social Media …………………………..£0.00
- Engage with their posts ………………………………………….£0.00
- Give them a shout out on your own Social Media ……….£0.00
Supporting Local Businesses
Head over to Facebook and take a look at the Support Local: Independent shops delivering in Brighton and Hove page for more lovely local goodies available either in walking distance or delivered to your door!
Follow the link below to see what you could find today!
#BungardLocal #BrightonandHoveLocalBusiness #Hove #Brighton #LocalBusiness