The Death Cafe, a group-directed discussion of death with no agenda, objectives or themes, returns to Chester next month.

In 2011, Chester-born Jon Underwood founded the first 'Death Cafe' from his home in East London, based on the ideas of Bernard Crettaz, and facilitated by his mother, Susan Barsky Reid.

Today the social franchise has spread across Europe, North America and Australasia - inspiring groups across the world to eat cake, drink tea and discuss the conventionally taboo topic of death.

In 2017, its founder died suddenly from acute promyelocytic leukaemia. 

A Queen's Park High School alumni, Jon heavily contemplated death and dying as part of his buddhist practice.

He described the goal of the Death Cafe as increasing "an awareness of death with a view to helping people make the most of their finite lives."

Jon's buddhism motivated his desire to encourage people to live their lives fully, "by knowing they were going to die".

Susan told Chester Nub News: "Knowing that there's an end, that you're not going to live forever, helps you to seize opportunities when you get them, not put them off.

"You need to have that in your mind, it makes you appreciate your life and all the beauty that there is in the world."

As an attendee at the first ever meeting in Hackney, Susan gladly volunteered to join the project, acting as its first facilitator. 

"He planned it very carefully with a series of of topics to talk about," she said.

"There were about seven people there and John was the waiter, making sandwiches and serving cake and tea.

"We decided after we had done a few that really it was much better to just let people talk."

Today, Death Cafe meetings don't follow a set agenda. With no prompts, the agenda comes from the people who are attending, "not from the facilitator".

She added: "I think some people find that a bit of a challenge because if people don't immediately fill the space with words, people can get anxious.

"But in fact, that space is really important for people to have time to think.

"Very often at a death cafe, people talk in such depth that you feel really close to the other members, even though it's only on for an hour and a half."

Upon Jon's death, he had requested that Susan and his sister Jools Barsky continued his work on Death Café.

For Susan, the movement has helped her feel "closer to him" even through grief.

"I feel like death cafe is one of Jon's legacies," she said.

"Talking about death can be extremely uplifting. It sounds ridiculous, but I find it uplifting to talk about death and dying.

"I think the people who attend death cafes usually do as well. I run death cafes because it makes me feel closer to him; I'm doing what I think he would have wanted me to be doing."

If you are interested in attending the next Death Cafe, a free meet-up will take place on December 1 at 2.30pm in the Storyhouse meeting room. 

You can find out more about the movement here.