Welcome to Belonging and Beyond: Exploring Belonging Through How We Live and Die, brought to you by Princess Alice Hospice with your hosts Rach Basak, Head of Community Involvement and Support and Sarah Dowd, Head of Inclusion.

In this series, we’ll have honest conversations about inclusion, belonging, and the barriers created in society for some. Together with guests from all walks of life, we’ll be unpacking big questions like: What does belonging look like? Who gets to belong? And how can we build communities where everyone feels seen and included?We are excited to be here and hope it sparks reflection, connection, and maybe even change.

This month, we’re delighted to be joined by Steve Marshall. Steve is a clinical academic who combines his work as a palliative care social worker at King’s College Hospital with research at The Cicely Saunders Institute. His work focuses on improving care for people and families at the end of life. Steve is currently undertaking qualitative data collection on a Marie Curie funded research project entitled The Take-up Study, which is exploring the take-up of welfare benefits towards the end-of-life. This work is already leading to practical, evidence-based guidance to support professionals in their practice in applying for benefits with those to likely to die in the next 12 months.

If you would like to share your thoughts, views or be part of Belonging and Beyond please do get in touch at sarahdowd@pah.org.uk and rachaelbasak@pah.org.uk Hosted and produced by Rachael Basak and Sarah DowdProduced by Sarah Dowd Edited by Sarah Dowd and Elizabeth Lattimore

Resources:Info about the KCL/CSI research project: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/research/the-take-up-study

Marie Curie's Dying in Poverty report: https://www.mariecurie.org.uk/document/dying-in-poverty-report-2025

Marie Curie's petition: https://campaigns.mariecurie.org.uk/page/159107/petition/1?ea.tracking.id=web

In the podcast we discuss that Macmillan Grants are no longer available nationally please see here for advice and support on other financial support Macmillan Grants | Macmillan Cancer Support Money advice | Macmillan Cancer Support