About Me

My Journey Towards Becoming a Funeral Celebrant

My decision to train to be a Celebrant was inspired by being asked by my niece Natasha and her partner Wim to conduct their wedding ceremony. I was deeply honoured to do this for them, particularly as they told me that they couldn’t think of anyone else who they would want to ask.

Between us we set about putting the ceremony together. A few days later I was talking to my close friend Hannah and told her that I would be conducting Natasha and Wim’s wedding service. Her immediate response was, “Why don’t you train to be a celebrant? I can just imagine you doing this as a new career”.

It was a definite ‘light bulb’ moment. It felt like this is what I was meant to do. Having decided that this was the path that I wanted to take, I had a strong calling to be a funeral celebrant as I wanted to do something to support people at one of the most significant moments in their lives - dealing with the loss of a loved one. I also felt that working as a funeral celebrant fitted with who I am, emotionally and with my ability to connect and communicate with people at a deeper level. 

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I immediately started searching for opportunities to train to be a celebrant. After comparing different training courses, I decided to study with Civil Ceremonies Limited and successfully completed my National Open College Network Diploma as a Civil Funeral Celebrant . Civil Ceremonies Ltd are one of the leading organisations and the quality of the course I completed with them was recently recognised by the national education standards inspectorate,  OFSTED as 'Outstanding' . The training was hard work and certainly prepared me in all aspects of working as a Funeral Celebrant.

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The nature of the work that I had done during my previous career means that I have been able to bring with me the ability to listen to people, to organise and to speak in public.  I had previously worked in community development. This involved me working with people from many different backgrounds.

For 3 years I was fortunate to work and live in Barcelona teaching English as a foreign language, which was of course an incredible experience. I met many wonderful people and made friendships that are as strong today as they were when they were formed. When I returned to the UK I went back to studying at University. After that, I started working as a university lecturer, teaching 18 to 21 year old students and mature students. I was responsible for developing and delivering new courses as well as organising national and international study trips. 

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For me, being a Civil Funeral Celebrant is a vocation for rather than a job. I always ensure that every ceremony I have the privilege to lead is unique and reflects the wishes of all concerned. I feel very honoured to be working as a professionally qualified and experienced Civil Funeral Celebrant and to be able to help many families to say farewell to their loved ones.

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I take great pride in my work. The comments and feedback that I have received from the families I have worked with demonstrate the quality of the ceremonies that I am able to provide. You can read some of these comments by following the link to 'Endorsements'.