Tribute to the pioneer

Any reference to palliative care is not complete without a mention of the courageous and compassionate woman who started it all – Dame Cicely Saunders. 

Cicely Saunders was born in 1918. She interrupted her university education to train as a nurse during the Second World War. However, a back injury forced her to give up nursing and she went on to qualify as a medical social worker. Later, she started working as a volunteer nurse in a home for the dying. 

Doctor, nurse, social worker

In 1951, she began her medical education. She felt that only as a doctor she would be listened to by other doctors. Thus, she became one of the rare persons to master the three specialities that form the pillars of palliative care—nursing, social work and medicine.

She founded the St. Christopher’s Hospice in London in 1967.  But, she always maintained that she did not found the hospice, the “hospice found me.”

Concept of total pain

Dr. Saunders was an inspirational teacher.  She taught the world the concept of “total pain” and made the family the unit of care.  Rather than “tender loving care,” she advocated “efficient loving care” in which attention to detail was most important.

Dame Cicely Saunders died on July 14, 2005, at St. Christopher’s. She was 87.