When the University of Exeter’s Dr Tia DeNora began working on a ground-breaking two-year project at Mountbatten Isle of Wight, she little realised how integral to our community she would become.

Now, on 17 October, the Professor of Cultural Studies will deliver the Francis Sheldon lecture, at the Mountbatten Conference 2024, at Northwood House in Cowes.

It comes ahead of her plans to publish a book (in 2025) about what she discovered here.

“My study has been an appreciation of the Mountbatten community and a consideration of what makes that possible. It is about things that could not be more important: Death, dying and bereavement.

“This is a beautiful topic. It is joyful even when it is sad: These are grown up emotions,” she explained.

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Over 50 days, spent in our John Cheverton Centre, café and gardens, as well as on our inpatient unit, on buses to our shops and on ferry crossings, Professor DeNora studied ‘small acts and attention to detail’.

Tia sketched drawings to make sense of what she was seeing. Her methods were often unobtrusive; she watched body language, listened to interactions, noted important objects.

Her plan is to work these quiet eclectic moments into her book, which will shout about the importance of our work.

It will also feature information gleaned from a series of interviews, in which she explored how being on an Island produces an identity and a sense of place.

In her time here, the cultural sociologist discovered an inextricable link between the members of our hospice community, our Island  community and beyond — one that helps make sense of death, dying and bereavement.

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Last chance to buy your ticket to Mountbatten Conference 2024 at Northwood House in Cowes

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Fundamental to Tia’s study is how Island isolation creates community, and how that can be duplicated on the other side of the Solent. 

How can we create ‘an archipelago of hospices’, working together to deal with the challenge of funding and demand?

Overwhelming positive about her experience, Tia wants to focus on success as a roadmap through the difficulties being faced by hospices across the UK.

“It is easy to tear stuff down. Let us look at examples where things are going well,” she said.

For the professor, it is increasingly important to galvanise community support.

“I was constantly told that Mountbatten had ‘touched all of us’.

“Its culture is one that does not deny death and dying. It ‘bundles them together and treats them as facts of life,” all the time immersed in the hustle and bustle of the day-to-day workings of the hospice and the Isle of Wight. 

Dr DeNora will talk about her findings when she appears as a key note speaker, on 17 October.

The conference, which is kindly being sponsored by established quality care service provider, Pacific Care Services, will also welcome Hospice UK's Craig Duncan, who will talk about the financial landscape for UK hospices and Isle of Wight Council's adult social care lead, Laura Gaudion, who will deliver a presentation on the social care landscape and the importance of partnerships.

There will workshops and words from Mountbatten CEO, Nigel Hartley.