An undertaker, a hospice worker, a hospital chaplain and an elderly care consultant are all taking part in a one-off conference designed to break the taboo around death.

"Death and Dying" will take place at Winchester's United Reform Church, Jewry Street, on Saturday, October 19th.

Organiser, Sutton Scotney GP, Dr Anna Wilson, said she wanted to lift the veil and open up discussion on the spiritual aspects. "It happens to us all, but death is the thing we prepare for the least. The conference will hopefully allow people to say the unspoken."

Dr Wilson masterminded the event with the help of a group of Catholic women from St Peter's Church, whose aim is to "help everybody find their spiritual level".

Pauline Shindell, of Hursley, will speak from a personal as well as a professional view. She works at Naomi House children's hospice, but also had two children who died when they were very young.

"My first, Laura, was born premature and died when she was 13 days old. Then we had another girl, Harriet, who we fostered. She lived for two years eight months. "We found her death was actually her healing. That's not to say it wasn't hard. But I learnt that we shouldn't be afraid of it."

Pauline said her experiences drew her to work at Naomi House. "Harriet just felt she was in a safe environment and chose it as the place to die, I think. We were all together as a family and if you could have a perfect death, that was it. It made us realise now valuable this kind of support was," she said.

She plans to talk about "the difficulty of trying to get God in the picture" when facing up to death. "You almost have another issue if you have a faith - why a loving God allows it."

She said people get wrapped up in protocols - the medical aspect, the funeral and bereavement counselling - without addressing crucial spiritual questions.

But city undertaker, Richard Steel, believes the taboo on death is fading. He plans to talk about the main changes he has seen in funerals over the past 40 years.

"There are things that wouldn't have been approved of 30 years ago, such as pop music. I think it was made acceptable by Elton John singing at Princess Diana's funeral."

The other trend is planning funerals in advance. "I've mixed views about that because there's an argument about who the funeral is for - the deceased or the bereaved," he added.

Other speakers include Father Andrew Chandler, the RHCH chaplain and a palliative care doctor from Southampton's Mountbatten Centre. A consultant in elderly care will talk about ethics.

The conference starts at 10am and runs until 4pm. All are welcome.