Graham Lymn manages the Oxford, Swindon and Gloucester Co-op Funeral Group and started working in the funeral business aged 17.

Based in Highworth, he is also president of the Funeral Standards Council, a national organisation which oversees how funeral directors operate.

Graham, 51, said: "My grandfather and father both worked in the funeral trade, so it was no big surprise when I followed in their footsteps."

He started at the bottom, washing hearses, and worked his way up to being a funeral organiser.

Graham said: "In this job you meet people at their lowest ebb in life and hopefully help them through it."

In his experience it is often the little things that make such a difference, like placing a betting slip in the coffin of someone who was rather partial to a flutter on the horses.

He said: "I find it so satisfying when everything comes together and you make happy memories out of a sad loss."

Asked how he copes with facing death, day in day out, Graham said he keeps a professional distance.

He said: "It doesn't help if the funeral arranger gets upset. Sometimes it is impossible to hold back the tears, but you cry in private and stay composed for the family and friends."