Here’s the latest from our partnership with Marie Curie

Here at Superdrug, we are extremely proud to have been in partnership with Marie Curie since 2013. During this time, we’ve helped raise awareness and funding for the essential end of life and palliative care that Marie Curie provides. Most recently, we’ve partnered up for the ‘We Don’t Talk About Death Enough’ report, which highlighted the barriers that lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people face with accessing end of life care that aligns with their needs. This report also highlights the importance of supporting and respecting these preferences and how this is vital in giving patients the best end of life care possible.

You can learn more about the findings from this report within this article, but first and foremost, a recap about Marie Curie and why their services are so vital.

What Do Marie Curie Do?

Marie Curie is the UK’s leading end of life charity, providing care to those with a terminal illness and the people closest to them. This care covers everything from frontline nursing and hospice care as well as a free support line and resources in areas such as dying, death and bereavement.

One of the main goals of our partnership is to support Marie Curie by ensuring that everyone can access the same level of care in their final stages of life, with no exceptions. As part of this mission, we were able to help in producing the ‘We Don’t Talk About Death Enough’ report. This was an online survey sent out to our Health and Beauty Card members with questions relating to attitudes towards death and dying. To get a clearer picture of the needs and desires of different groups within the UK public, we asked respondents for their age, gender identity, sexual orientation and age.

Note: The findings from the report cover the attitudes of heterosexual, lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) respondents, this is because there were a low number of participants reporting as transgender, queer or any other identity in the LGBTQ+ community. Further research will need to be conducted on these groups to explore their specific perspectives and experiences.

Findings From the ‘We Don’t Talk About Death Enough’ Report

The 2,261 responses highlighted a clear difference in end of life and palliative care preferences between heterosexual people and those from LGB sectors of the LGBTQ+ community. Here are some key findings from the survey:

Lesbian, gay and bisexual people are more likely than heterosexual people to say being surrounded by friends would be a top-three priority at the end of their lives.
Lesbian, gay and bisexual people are less likely than heterosexual people to prioritise being surrounded by family at the end of life.
Gay men are more than three times more likely than heterosexual people to say having their cultural needs met
Bisexual people are also twice as likely to prioritise cultural needs than heterosexual people.

Caris Newson, Superdrug’s Healthcare Director, added: “We’ve partnered with Marie Curie for many years and we’re proud to support their continued work in understanding the needs of diverse communities at the end of people’s lives. This report, unfortunately, highlights the continued challenges faced by LGB people and the changes now needed to their end of life care and support.”

Going Forward…

The survey brought to light the different areas of end of life and palliative care that could be improved for LGB people, which will be used by Marie Curie to enrich the diversity training of their staff. The knowledge gained also helped Marie Curie to put together a set of four recommendations for healthcare providers that will help to ensure that the needs of LGB patients are recognised and valued.

LGB patients might have different preferences and needs as to who they want to support them, which may not be family.
No assumptions should be made with regard to who they would prefer support from. Open conversations with LGB patients should be held to confirm who they would choose to support them.
Increase acknowledgement of the role of friends in supporting people at the end of life.
Cultural needs are important to LGB patients, and this should be recognised with end-of-life planning and care.

Marie Curie supporter Jamie Windust commented: “Continuing this conversation around the cultural differences LGBT+ experiences when it comes to talking about dying and end of life and palliative care will hopefully ensure that more and more LGBT+ people will receive the love and respect they deserve during their final days.”

To access the full ‘We Don’t Talk About Death Enough’ report, click here.

Discover More About Our Ongoing Partnership with Marie Curie

About Rosa Morell

Copywriter

Rosa is a creative copywriter who has been writing about beauty, fragrance and her personal interest, sustainable fashion, for over two years. When she’s not hunting in her local charity shops for vintage homeware, she’s scrolling through the latest beauty trends on TikTok. Her favourite range at Superdrug? B. Skincare.