A Cornish couple who have paid £28,000 each to be frozen after their deaths are holding a special cryonics "roadshow" for people in the Westcountry interested in being frozen instead of buried or cremated.
Chrissie and John de Rivaz from Porthtowan, near Truro, hope scientific advances will allow them not only to be unfrozen and revived in the decades following their deaths but also that whatever killed them will be curable.
Film maker Walt Disney is rumoured to have been cryonically frozen and singer Michael Jackson has been said to have been interested.
Chrissie, 61, said: "I have been interested for about ten years. I have signed up to be suspended in the event of my death." Chrissie and her husband John, 57, have signed up with the Cryonics Institute in America where they will be shipped after they are cooled. They hope to set up an emergency team in Cornwall which will be on hand to perform vital functions in the event of a member's death.
Chrissie explained: "If it was known that you were about to die they would take steps to get here to prepare the body for freezing. As soon as death has been pronounced the body is cooled. If you know it's going to happen in a day or so then you can have a team standing by. We have a group among our members but living in remote Cornwall, as we do, we have a bit of a problem and this is something that we have been trying to sort out."
At the moment cryonic science does not stretch to unfreezing people who have been "suspended" in this way. But Chrissie hopes medical science will not only advance enough for her to be revived, but also that developments will mean a medical fix for whatever led to her death.
She said: "There is still very much a long way to go. We are looking at what is developing and what is likely to happen in the future."
"There's an awful lot of research going on including anti-ageing research. Undoubtedly one day people will be able to have hugely longer lifespans. I don't think religion or anything like that comes into it. If my soul is going to flit out of my body when I die then so be it. The process will have been useless but it will not matter, I will know nothing about it. I don't have any fears at all."
"It costs about £28,000 but, having said that, a funeral costs a lot of money and what does that achieve? Instead of a funeral for their parents, Chrissie and John's three children have been told to have a party instead.
The roadshow takes place on Sunday. Ring 07061 131228 for more information.
(picture of Chrissie)
HOPE: Chrissie de Rivaz, who will be frozen after her death
(picture, montage of Disney and Micky Mouse)
DISNEY: Thought to have been frozen with cryonics