Saunders , Dame , Cicely Mary Strode , 1918-2005 , founder of the modern hospice movement

Born, 1918; educated at Roedean school and studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics at St Anne's College, Oxford; left early to study nursing at St Thomas' Hospital Medical School, Nightingale School of Nursing, from 1941 and qualified as a State Registered Nurse, 1944; returned to Oxford and was awarded a War degree; qualified as a lady almoner (medical social worker), 1947; meeting with dying Polish cancer patient, David Tasma, helped convince her of the need for more advanced palliative care in modern medicine and the experience also had a profound personal effect, heping to set her on a new career path, including retraining as a doctor to help the terminally and chronically ill; began voluntary work at St Luke's Hospital for the dying in Bayswater, London; qualified as a doctor after training at St Thomas' Hospital, 1951-1957; appointed a research fellow studying pain management at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, at St Joseph's Sisters of Charity in their home for the dying in Hackney, 1958-1965, she continued her research to improve the control of pain in terminally ill patients - the topic of her research fellowship. She accumulated over 1000 case records there, and a large collection of colour slide photos that she used to great effect in her lectures; established St Christopher's Hospice, Sydenham, 1967, which set the standard for modern hospices across the world and combined pain management with a holistic appreciation of the importance of the spiritual well-being of the patient in the treatment of the dying; Medical Director of the Hospice, 1967-1985, and President from 2000; recipient of numerous honorary awards, fellowships and honours including fellowships of the Royal College of Physicians, Royal College of Surgeons and Royal College of Nursing, award of the Order of Merit, 1989, and numerous honorary degrees; died, 2005.
Publications: notably including Care of the dying (1960); Living with dying (1983); Beyond the horizon (1990); ed The management of terminal disease (1978).