Jane Horrocks: Death is feared by the Western world and needs to be talked about

Absolutely Fabulous star Jane Horrocks has said people do not talk about death “enough” and the Western world “seems to fear” it.

The 60-year-old actress is an ambassador for Marie Curie, the UK’s leading end of life charity, and has helped to launch its Diary Of A Wardrobe auction, which has seen celebrity donations from the likes of model Kate Moss, Dame Julie Walters and Dame Shirley Bassey.

The actress has been working with Marie Curie for years and said it is a great charity as “families are very much included in the death process”.

Speaking about the charity, she told the PA news agency: “We don’t talk about death enough, and it’s (Marie Curie) all about living and prolonging life.

“People don’t talk about the inevitable that is going to come to us all at some point in our life.

“I feel it should be talked about more and possibly not feared in the way that the Western world seems to fear it.

“It’s (death) got more taboo, I think, as time has gone on, with medication, with the intervention of medication to prolong life.”

Horrocks was working with the charity when her mother died but had not asked for help at the time, which she said she would have done “in hindsight”.

She said she was asked to leave the room so the carers could prepare her body following her death and found it “really hard”.

“We stayed a very short time, and then it was home – and I wasn’t present when my dad died – but it just felt a bit brutal, actually, very brutal,” she said.

“I really struggled with that and if somebody had said, ‘Listen, rigor mortis (stiffening of the body) is not going to set in for a while, so you don’t need to be frightened about that, you can sit with her for as long as you want.

“‘You can sit with her all night if you wanted to and we’d be fine with that’. But that didn’t happen.

“I just think there’s lots of myths surrounding death that people pass on, people say, ‘Oh, they’re turning yellow now’. And that process takes a while.

“It’s not immediate and I just think it’s all full of myths and fear and horror. Actually, when my mum did pass, it was a very beautiful thing, it was very gentle.

“I know people might have other experiences than I experienced with my mum, but that was my experience.

“It just did feel like she just faded away and it wasn’t horrific at all.

“It was just the way that it was dealt with that was not very inclusive or compassionate, I’d say.”

“I wish I’d have talked to Marie Curie about about this before my mum did die,” she added.

To raise money for the charity, the actress hatched a plan for an auction, which she came up with when she was clearing out clothes from her house.

“I then thought, ‘Oh, it’s quite a small auction if it’s just my clothes’,” she said.

“So, then me and the people at Marie Curie reached out to many other people.”

Horrocks said the auction is “special” as the items will be personalised and come with an added extra like a message or photograph from the celebrity.

Items being sold include a bronze coloured dress worn by Horrocks when she sang with Robbie Williams at London’s Royal Albert Hall, Christian Louboutins donated by Moss, a coat worn by Dame Emma Thompson, and Daniel Craig’s bloodied shirt from a production of Macbeth.

The Diary Of A Wardrobe Auction is being held on September 19 at 2pm in Surrey and live internationally online – with bidders able to register on the Ewbank’s Auctions website.