#133 Advance Care Plan is for life not Christmas: reflections & resource with Dani & James

In this episode it is my pleasure to catch up with the fabulous Dani & James, my co-partners in the Advance Day Conference and awareness campaigning. 

We share the highlights from ACP Day 2025, and explain how you can access, for free, all presentations from the day. We also announce the date for ACP Day 2026. listen in to hear us reveal the day and how you can be involved in shaping content.

Key messages

• Dani shares the passion, drive and commitment involved in ACP Day 2025

• James remembers the wonderful preparation the night before the conference

• I share the live and complex unplanned discussion I had with Celia Kitzinger on stage

• The evaluation demonstrated overwhelming positive response from delegates who commented on the quality of the speakers and ability to network

• The feedback from live stream told us delegates loved the flexibility to log on for individual sessions

• Learning from others was a further key message on evaluation

• We share that questions taken after were followed up after the event showing the discussions continue

• All ACP Day speaker videos from 2025 are now available to watch for free - they are segmented for ease so each session can be seen independently

• The videos can be used for reflective practice

• We are actively looking for sponsors for ACP Day 2026

• The ACP Day  Conference is a Public Health approach to Advance Care Planning

• We announce the day for ACP Day 2026!!! The ACP Day 2025 will be held on Wednesday 1 July 

• We are asking people to be involved in the shaping and planning of Advance Care Plan Day 2026 - this is a community driven project and we want to know what people want for ACP Day 2026 content

• The deadline will be 17 October 2025 for suggestions for ACP Day 2025

• The ACP Day 2026 will be in person at the John Innes Centre in Norwich and will be available to live stream

Resource

• Advance Care Plan Day 2025 

• Access the speaker presentations from ACP Day 2025 

• To contact us click: here

Bio

Dani Ayre

Dani is Matron and Lead Nurse for Palliative Care currently working at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital. She has over 15 years’ experience in Palliative and End-of-Life Care (PEoLC). She previously worked in Gibraltar for over 8 years, implementing and leading a Hospice Outreach Service for the community of Gibraltar. She has also worked in the community in Palliative care and Long Term conditions and briefly in the acute sector. 

Dani has furthered her knowledge throughout her career by achieving a Distinction in her PG Certificate at Masters level in Palliative Medicine and completed 2 further Masters modules in leadership and education in Palliative care. She is passionate about raising awareness and educating on Palliative care and the importance of Advance care Planning  not only to Health care professionals and the general public.

James Norris

James is the founder of MyWishes and the Digital Legacy Association.  He also holds the post as the Digital Research Fellow at Michael Sobell Hospice (London) 

Over the last 13 years James has developed and explored the use of technology to help improve end of life communication, planning and care.

In 2015 he launched the Digital Legacy Association CIC at Hospice UK’s annual conference to support professionals and the general public in areas relating to digital assets planning and digital legacy. The Digital Legacy Association argues that ‘planning for death digitally should form a holistic approach to advance care planning’.

MyWishes takes both a public health approach and a digital first approach to advance care planning. It educates and empowers society to document their future health and wider wishes. Its content, structure and design has been developed to help introduce care planning to society at an early stage and normalise this behaviour by incorporating it alongside other better known tasks (will writing, funeral planning, bucket lists etc). MyWishes only works with the NHS, local councils and the charity sector. It is free for all to use. MyWishes has been ‘hyperlocalised’ to help support different regions’ unique, health ecosystems. The Wellbeing Hub for example, is only available for MyWishes users who live in the Hillingdon Borough of London. 

James continues to consult various governmental and non-governmental organisations across the globe in areas relating to death and the internet. He provides thought leadership in areas relating to death, bereavement, technology and the internet on TV, online, print and in scientific journals. Appearances and publications range from BBC Breakfast and the BBC’s Morning Live to the New Scientist and Vice magazine. James has also held the post as the Design Research Fellow at the Velindre Cancer Centre (Cardiff) for the last six years.