Hayley Cartwright, known for her celebrant character ‘Hazel’, now performs off-set too, as she helps give people with no family a final goodbye.
The actress first welcomed the life of a celebrant in 2017 when she was cast as Coronation Street’s Hazel, who officiated many weddings and funerals on screen. She had visited many too, away from the sets, where she felt previous funerals lacked heartfelt emotion about the deceased’s life.
Given that thought, Hayley was encouraged to become a real-life celebrant, where her dad said the role would lend itself to her, in light of her affectionate nature and passionate career. Hayley told the MEN: “It’s important to send someone on their next journey with love.
"As an actor, we have to be really in touch with our emotions and feelings. It’s part of our work and what we do.” However, it wasn’t until 2019 when Hayley was approached by an official celebrant, that she began training and completed the course within lockdown in 2021.
Hayley said: "After starting as a recurring character in corrie and playing Hazel as a celebrant, I thought I'd love to visit this avenue in real life.
"I really enjoyed the role as an actress and always wanted to do it but never really knew how to get into it, but after doing some work with Contact Theatre, one of the producers' mum who was a celebrant, met me and agreed to train me."
Alongside the celebrant of weddings, vow renewals, and baby naming, she has been carrying out funerals for those with no other friends or family to attend.
Hayley is often contacted by funeral directors asking to help with service when the person has no money or is estranged from any family, a funeral that is provided by local authorities when no other suitable arrangements can be made.
The average cost of a public health funeral stood at £5,382,379 in 12 months up to April 2018, with Manchester's local authority spending the second highest behind Birmingham with £242,178, published by BBC findings in 2019.
With more than 3,800 funerals for people in poverty or without relatives, it's believed these numbers have increased in recent years due to the pandemic and other economical climates, as figures already show a worrying picture of loneliness and isolation across the UK.
“There are lots of people that fall to various circumstances in life, who fall through the cracks in society, but everyone deserves a respectful funeral regardless of their wealth,” Hayley said.
The actress takes it a step further by encouraging as many people to join the services, as very often, the person who has passed, doesn’t have anyone to attend the service.
Hayley posts within several groups to see if anyone will join her in the 20 to 30-minute final farewell. “No one should be laid to rest alone, it’s important that they know there are people who care," she said.
The latest local authority funeral took place on October 11, for a person who if not for the call-out, may have had to witness a lonely departure. However, many people gathered at the Southern Cemetery, all strangers to one another, but all coming together to give a lovely send-off.
The social media pleas brought attention to communities of the services taking place within Manchester, and led to a Facebook Group being created to notify people of local authority funerals.
The Local Authority/Lonely Death Funeral Services Group now provides a safe space for informing people about when the funerals take place, talking about public services, and sharing experiences with bereavement. Despite the Facebook Group only being set up this month, the page already has over 100 members.
Gwen Birchall-Peake, a member of the group, said: “I joined the group to find out if anyone is being laid to rest near me, so I’m free to attend as everyone deserves to have people paying their respects when being laid to rest.
“I used to see public funerals with nobody there and it upset me. Hayley does amazing services for those being laid to rest.” The next public health funeral being officiated by Hayley Cartwright is set to take place at Blackley Crematorium on November 2 at 11am.
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