Unfortunately we are not able to assist everyone who enquires to use our service – either due to being outside our scope of service or we do not have volunteer biographers available in the area.
These alternative services may be worth considering.
Note: Most of these services are fee for service. We are not endorsing any of these programs as we have not used them.
In person service most similar to Beyond Words
Eastern Palliative Care (Eastern suburbs of Melbourne)
Palliative Care South East (South eastern suburbs of Melbourne)
Writers listed with Life Stories Australia
Online services
These online services generally follow a format where you are emailed a question each week to build a book that is posted to you. These mainly start around $100. (Please note that some sites are American so are in USD.)
Remento includes voice/video
Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay
Audio stories
A Lasting Tale Costs between $1395 to $4000
Memory Lane Life Stories Costs between $1,790 to $6,990
Image by xb100 on Freepik
Video stories
The Archive Costs $1,997
Apps that you can use to create videos
A moment with (see demonstration here)
Image by ikaida on Freepik
Other possible options where you could find assistance
There are Writers’ Groups in most areas – local libraries usually have knowledge or your local U3A may be able to assist.
Writers Victoria has some suggestions on where you can find a ghost writer and Oral History Victoria has a list of practising oral historians.
If you want to give it a go yourself, this list of questions may help you get started.
Costs accurate as at Aug 2026