Words by Smiley Team
This Christmas, a charity called The Hospice Biographers is offering all families across Britain the chance to have their terminally ill or elderly relatives professionally recorded on either 13 or 15 December.
Trained listeners will take calls from your loved ones for free. They will carefully tease out some of their most memorable experiences to preserve them as a high-quality audio file.
“It’s the perfect Christmas present for all the family to enjoy,” says the charity’s founder Barbara Altounyan. “Christmas is a time for families to come together. By recording relatives who are nearing the end of their life, you’re capturing something precious that later on, you won’t be able to capture.”
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Barbara created The Hospice Biographers for her father, Roger Altounyan, who had many remarkable memories that she wanted to record before he passed away. Growing up in Syria, Roger went on to pioneer a drug to treat asthma and was the inspiration behind one of the characters in the children’s book ‘Swallaws and Amazons’.
“He died two weeks after I finished and all my family and siblings wanted a copy of the audio recording,” Barbara recalls.
Her own experience has led her to understand the importance of preserving memories towards the end of a family member’s life.
“People always say to me that they wish they’d recorded their relatives before they passed away,” she explains. “For the families, it gives them a lasting memory and, in the world of the media, audio is more powerful than pictures.”
The Hospice Biographers will accept the first 100 applicants who apply for their “audio marathon” by 6 pm on Monday, 6 December to [email protected]m.
Volunteers will take calls remotely due to Covid-19.
Their service is free but donations are welcome. Donate here.
Find more information at thehospicebiographers.com.
