Thanks for visiting my website. I’m Martin Poole. I live on the Wirral and work as a funeral celebrant having trained with Civil Ceremonies Ltd to gain a Level 3 Diploma in Funeral Celebrancy – the highest qualification in the industry. As well as working as a funeral celebrant, I also work as a counsellor and psychotherapist.
I originally trained at drama school and for 30 years I worked in the theatre industry as an actor, director, producer and acting tutor. Many of the skills that I acquired during that time serve me well as a funeral celebrant; I’m organised, used to collaborating with people to create private and public events and, of course, I am comfortable when standing in front of a room full of people and can clearly be heard at the back of the room.
My aim is to focus my attention on your needs; to assist you in saying farewell to your loved one by creating a unique ceremony that will be meaningful and respectful to their wishes and yours.
I occasionally run free events on the Wirral where you can drink tea, eat cake and discuss death. Each event is called a Death Cafe and usually takes place for a couple of hours in a local tea shop. These events are part of a larger movement started by Jon Underwood in 2011 and Death Cafes are now held in over 50 countries with many thousands of events taking place so far. The idea is to encourage people to talk about the often taboo subject of death and dying in a friendly and relaxed environment – the thinking being that when we are able to accept and talk about death, we are often able to live more fulfilling lives as a result. To find out more about the organisation go to www.deathcafe.com or to find out about the next Death Cafe event on the Wirral go to www.facebook.com/deathcafewirral.
I support the work of the Natural Death Centre and the organisation Dying Matters.