Cicely Saunders
From Freepedia
Dame Cicely Mary Strode Saunders, OM, DBE (22 June 1918–14 July 2005) was a prominent British nurse, physician and writer, involved with many international universities. She was most famous for her role in the birth of the hospice movement, emphasizing the importance of palliative care in modern medicine.
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Life and work
Saunders was educated at Roedean, St Anne's College, Oxford, St Thomas's Hospital Medical School and at the Nightingale School of Nursing, qualifying as a nurse in 1944 and then a medical social worker in 1947.
She founded St Christopher's Hospice, the world's first purpose-built hospice, in 1967. The hospice was founded on the principles of combining expert pain and symptom relief with holistic care to meet the physical, social, psychological and spiritual needs of its patients and those of their family and friends.
In 1965 Saunders was made an Officer of the British Empire. In 1979 she was further elevated to Dame Commander. In 1981 Dame Cicely was awarded the Templeton Prize, the world's richest annual prize awarded to an individual. In 1989 Dame Cicely was appointed to the Order of Merit by Queen Elizabeth II. In 2001 she was awarded the largest humanitarian award - the Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize, worth £700,000 - for her life's work caring for the dying. On 25th April 2005 another portrait of her was unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery.
She is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, a Fellow of the Royal College of Nursing and a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons.
Titles and honours
Shorthand titles
- Miss Cicely Saunders (22 June 1918–1 January 1965)
- Miss Cicely Saunders, OBE (1 January 1965–31 December 1979)
- Dame Cicely Saunders, DBE (31 December 1979–30 November 1989)
- Dame Cicely Saunders, OM, DBE (30 November 1989–14 July 2005)
Honours
- Dame Commander of the British Empire (elevated from Officer)
- Member of the Order of Merit
External links
- BBC obituary
- Guardian obituary
- A personal therapeutic journey, Cicely Saunders British Medical Journal 1996
- Cicely Saunders Foundation
- BBC Womens Hour interview and history, broadcast 17th August 2001
Categories: 1918 births | 2005 deaths | Members of the Order of Merit | British nurses | Palliative medicine | British doctors | Former students of St Anne's College, Oxford
