The 22nd of June’s Google Doodle celebrated the 100th anniversary of the birth of Dame Cicely Saunders (1918 – 2005); the amazing woman who contributed significantly to the development of hospice care, or palliative care as we know it today.
Born in Barnet, she initially studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford before deciding to become a nurse, and then qualify as a medical social worker, in 1945. Not done with the world of academia, she subsequently studied for a medical degree at St Thomas’s Hospital in London.
Dame Cicely Saunders recognised the need to evolve the care of the dying that was offered at the time in hospitals. The hospice she founded in 1967, St Christopher’s, became a pioneering force in palliative care, putting into practice the type of support that is “best practice” now in the palliative care setting.
As well as the leading work to develop expert pain and symptom control, St Christopher’s was the first hospital to revolutionise a “package of care”, addressing, not just medical needs, but practical, emotional, social, and spiritual support too. She recognised that the family and friends of a dying patient also needed support and developed bereavement services at St Christopher’s Hospice to provide help beyond the death of the patient.
In 1969 Dame Cicely pioneered the first care-at-home service, in which a team took St Christopher’s blend of medical care and holistic support into the community and into the homes of those who needed palliative care.
At a time when terminally ill patients and their families were frequently told that there was no more that could be done, Cicely Saunders had the courage and vision to change the face of care for the dying. She should be remembered for her view that, “there is so much more to be done”.
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