Founded in 2004 by Matthew Newton

About me

Working at a local independent funeral directors at the tender age of fifteen bearing, cleaning vehicles, and taking part in the on call rota I soon felt a part of the funeral industry from an early age.

I soon began asking questions about the embalming process and asked if I could come in and watch an embalming by the lady embalmer Angie McClachlan who was a qualified member of the British Institute of Embalmers at the top of her class. Every spare moment I would pop in and help wash hair and probably distract Angie with my many questions as I found it all so fascinating!

Over time the funeral directors decided to put me on the health and hygiene course at Salisbury college, which I passed with honours in 1999. The thought of bringing comfort to grieving families is something that money cant buy and to be able to do this as a job seemed like a no brainer for me so I embarked on taking my embalming qualification which then enabled me to become part of the British Institute of Embalmers.

After passing my exam in 2001 I became senior embalmer at the local funeral directors. In 2003 i passed my foundation in funeral directing with the British institute of funeral directors, however after a lot of thought I decided my heart was with the care of the deceased so I decided not to progress further with funeral directing and concentrate on the embalming side. In 2004 I decided to be my own boss and start out on my own, creating m-balm. I have continued embalming for Lesley Shand Funeral service, the company I started out with but also branched out to other local funeral directors too.

The company

I now have 2 members of staff who work for me, and the area that we cover has broadened as logistically we can be in three different places at the same time.

We now service over 16 funeral directors on a monthly basis and have over 45 funeral directors in our portfolio that we help over the year with holiday cover..