Ambassador Kellie Curtain urges Australians to have end-of-life conversations during National Advance Care Planning Week

On the eve of National Advance Care Planning Week, 20 – 26 March, Advance Care Planning Advocate Kellie Curtain is urging Australians to have their advance care planning documents in place for both themselves and their families. The Advance Care Planning Australia Ambassador and producer/host of the Breast Cancer Australia Network’s Upfront Podcast series knows the importance of honest and open discussions – because she’s had them. The conversations she had with her mother in the weeks before she died of breast cancer in 2010 formed an invaluable blueprint for her mother’s care. Alarmingly, only 15 per cent of Australians have an advance care directive and half are not able to make end-of-life medical decisions. If you found yourself suddenly too ill to make treatment decisions, who would make those decisions on your behalf – and would they know what you wanted?