When people meet in a cafe in the centre of Ayr it is usually to talk about the weather or catch up on each others lives.

On May 18, Joy Gill, will be hosting Ayrshire’s first Death Cafe - where over a cup of coffee and a cake you can talk openly about death or anything connected to it.

The session begins at 7pm until 9pm at Restaurant D’Vinity on 48 Newmarket Street, Ayr.

Death Cafe has become a worldwide movement to try and take the taboo out of talking about death, there have been over 1,800 death cafe events taking place around the globe.

Joy, 54, has over 20 years nursing experience and is currently a McTimoney Chiropractor.

She said: “In our culture death is not something that is talked about.

“At a death cafe you can talk about anything, there is no agenda to the meeting, it’s entirely led by whoever attends.

“In previous meetings up in Glasgow, people have talked about a wide range of things from what they would like done at their funerals to what treatment is to be given to them in their last days.” Joy is also in the middle of her training to become a soul midwife - where she will help souls cross over into the next life.

Joy said: “People come to me because I do a physical job [as a chiropractor], I love helping people out of pain but I think I am more spiritual.

“As a chiropractor people expect a physical result to their pain and as a soul midwife people would expect me to be more spiritual.” The Death Cafe idea was concieved by London based, Jon Underwood, who based it upon the work of Bernard Crettaz.

The principals of a Death Cafe are that they are a not for profit event and the intention for the meeting is not to lead people in coversation, but to facilitate it.

More information about previous Death Cafe meetings and upcoming events can be found at www.deathcafe.com.