Listen: Music for the End, a podcast with Edith Bowman

How important is music at the end of life?

In a special Marie Curie podcast, award-winning radio broadcaster and television presenter Edith Bowman sits down to explore that question. She's joined by Marie Curie Nurse Rekha Vijayshankar, Marie Curie Healthcare Assistant Viki Darvill, and Honorary Marie Curie Research Fellow Dr Tracey McConnell.

Their conversation includes Rekha and Viki's personal experiences of how music has shaped the end of people's lives, the science behind whether music can reduce pain, and people's unlikely picks for funeral songs.

Watch a clip of the special podcast below and listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Acast.

"We had a patient who'd been homeless for a while and had a very difficult cancer," says Marie Curie Nurse, Rekha. "We had Radio 4 or something playing in the background. This song, Bridge Over Troubled Water, came on and I will never forget this.

"I was holding his hand, his grip tightened, and he mouthed along to it. It was poignant. He died two days later, and he left a note for me. It said, 'You're my bridge over troubled waters. Keep smiling.' I will take that to my grave. It's my legacy for my children."

"All the evidence out there suggests that music therapy can reduce pain in patients who are dying," explains music therapy expert and Marie Curie Research Fellow, Dr Tracey McConnell.

"It releases endorphins and dopamine. It has all these physiological reactions that help explain the reduction of pain, the reduction in anxiety.

"It's fascinating because the auditory centres in the brain are the first thing that develop. From 16 weeks, that's developed. It's one of the last functions that stop at the end of life, so music is always there, from the very beginning to the very end."

"When you start facilitating these conversations with people, mainly about funeral choices for songs, patients themselves will pick slighter darker choices sometimes," describes Marie Curie Healthcare Assistant, Viki.

"Some people say, 'I want, Highway to Hell' or 'Relight My Fire,' and you can see their relatives like 'Oh my god.' How funny to have that light moment rather than everyone in black, all sombre and Ave Maria or Flying Without Wings. No, get Dancing Queen on and celebrate that person's life!

"People say to me, '[A hospice] must be such a sad place to work'. And there is sadness, there is, but it's actually a really joyful place to work. There's laughter in the corridor, there's the choir singing."

The podcast follows Marie Curie launch of the first ever end of life music playlist curated by people living with a terminal illness. You can stream and download the playlist on Spotify or find it below.