A SHRIVENHAM cemetery owner is celebrating after winning a “death Oscar”.

Westmill Woodland Burial Ground owner Liz Rothschild was jointly handed a prize for the Most Significant Contribution to the Understanding of Death.

The gong was one of 27 awarded by the Good Funeral Guide at a glitzy London ceremony for the Good Funeral Award.

Liz, whose natural burial ground near Shrivenham has previously won an award for cemetery of the year, said she was “amazed and relieved” to win.

“There was a really strong shortlist,” said Liz, 60. “Any number of people had done amazing work.”

Liz was joint winner of the award with Lucy Coulbert, owner and funeral director at Oxfordshire-based The Individual Funeral Company. “I really like her,” said Liz.

She thinks that the wide variety of her work won her the judges’ votes.

As well as opening the Westmill Woodland Burial Ground in 2013, Liz has set up death cafés and created Oxford’s Kicking the Bucket Festival. Later this year she will take her stage show about death, Outside the Box, to America.

She said: “Every time I do something I see that I need to do something else to have the effect I’m looking for.”

“I’m trying to make it possible for people to feel able to talk about and prepare for death, as well as feeling comfortable talking about being bereaved.”

She has worked with schools, older people and people with learning disabilities – as well as the wider public.

“We’re all affected by death,” she said.

Liz’s interest in bereavement stemmed from the death of a close friend when Liz was around 30. She said: “It was one of those incredibly shocking deaths. She was in a coma and died days later.

“You’re not prepared.”

Thursday’s awards ceremony at Porchester Hall was emotional for Liz.

Her friend Jon Underwood was posthumously given an outstanding achievement award. The death café founder died in June aged just 44.

“It was a beautiful moment. He was so modest.”

For more about Westmill, visit www.woodlandburialwestmill.co.uk.