The last weekend in September I attended the AAPT Annual Education Event which took place in Glasgow. It was possibly the most fun I have had at one of these and I put that down to knowing a lot of people now and feeling less nervous than I used to. I was helping at the sign in desk ticking people’s names off and I can only apologise to anyone who’s name I didn’t remember, I am great with faces but terrible with names so I sit in that awful position of knowing I have met you before but very awkwardly unable to remember your name. However I got to catch up with some excellent friends, including a very lovely past colleague who is now doing great at another mortuary and an online friend who became an in person friend.
I won’t go into too much detail about the different talks that were there. Professor Michael Osborn kicked off discussing deaths by fire and drowning in the first talk of the day and later in the day Dr Esther Youd presented a very interesting insight into the drug deaths that happen in the Glasgow area. There was an excellent talk by Ishbel Gall on her experiences with CBRN training and exercises and Michael Conway finished the day presenting in place of a speaker who was unable to attend with a brilliant discussion of some different work he has taken part in.
One thing that stuck with me, and I think with many others that day was a talk given by Christian Hyldager of the Retsmedicinsk Institut in Denmark. Christian gave an in depth insight into his work, like many others that day, but I think he left a lot of us longing to see a move to Copenhagen in our future! There are some stark differences between our work and the work that takes place in Denmark. For a start, and the most striking difference to me was the fact that the death registration/investigation process there seems so incredible simple in comparison to what takes place here. This is particularly poignant after the recent full roll out of the Medical Examiner service in this country. Other aspects that generated jealous groans from the attendees that day were the fact that they have cleaners who do all the cleaning, and although they are on call 24/7 they get a company car for use at these times.
It does not need to be stated that this talk got me thinking, and I have been curious about the APT role and our counterparts around the world. Last year when I was in Canada I looked into the available work for someone trained like me and one thing I remember is it seemed to pay a lot better than in the UK. If you come across this and work somewhere else in the world in a mortuary type setting please do get in touch (or comment below!) and let me know what you do.
Next year the AEE is in Bristol and I hope to be able to attend once again. Although I should add, I have edited all my social media to reflect as such, I am no longer on the AAPT Council as of this month. I hope, in many ways, that it is not a permanent goodbye and instead a see you later and I can return in the future. I want to spend as much time as possible with my little girl while she is young and this did mean stepping back in some ways. I will continue to do a lot of the things I like however, such as being an assessor and working with others on some fun projects. I have also been back at work half a day a week for the last two weeks, nothing like easing myself back in incredibly gently, but this will be increasing slowly over the coming months. One thing I am excited for, however, is having my first full Christmas off in many many years. I don’t think I have ever, in my entire working career since leaving university had the two weeks over Christmas and New Year off and I cannot wait for it.
With that probably abhorrent mention of the C word I will finish this saying I hope everyone reading this is well and thank you for reading.
Best wishes,
MG
Mortuary Gem 
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