The movement’s inspiration was Dame Cicely Saunders OM, DBE, FRCP, FRCN, who became a doctor to fulfill her lifetime mission to change existing medical and social attitudes about the care of the dying. Her groundbreaking work in pain management for the dying proved pain could be prevented, not just managed, and this became a cornerstone of hospice care.
St Christopher’s model of compassionate palliative care—providing emotional, spiritual, and social support, along with expert nursing and medical care—has elevated and transformed the lives of the terminally ill. The needs of both patients and those close to them are addressed as a “unit of care.”
Dame Cicely Saunders died peacefully at age 87 on July 14, 2005, at the hospice she founded.