CICELY SAUNDERS
Founder of the Hospice Movement
Selected Letters 1959-1999
David Clark, Editor
Oxford University Press, 2002
ISBN 0-19-851607-X
397pp
RRP £39.95, $US62.00 Hard Cover Now Available in: Softcover
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This volume provides a truly privileged view of the life and work of Dame Cicely Saunders, as seen through a selection of her correspondence, over the four decades
that she has championed hospice and palliative care.
The letters are grouped into three time periods: the years leading up to the opening of St. Christopher’s Hospice (1959-1967); those in which Cicely Saunders
was it’s Medical Director (1968-1985); and her years as it’s Chairman, up to 1999. David Clark provides brief but informative biographical and professional notes at the beginning of each section
but allows the letters, unedited and in chronological sequence, to speak for themselves.
In the early letters, we hear of the development of St. Christopher’s Hospice. How "The Scheme", the 10-page outline of the vision that was to become
St. Christopher’s Hospice, was circulated to carefully selected individuals who would provide help and support. Followed by ten years of tireless work and organisation. As the palliative care
movement expands, we hear her talking to a large number of people from around the world. There are letters to a young Robert Twycross about possible career paths, to Josefina Magno about her
International Hospice Institute (that fostered the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM), and went on to become what is now the International Association for Hospice and
Palliative Care (IAHPC)), to Balfour Mount about his Montreal conferences, to Derek Doyle about the new journal Palliative Medicine, and even to my future mentor, Walter Moon. Points are made
where they are due and both Elizabeth Kubler-Ross (with whom she otherwise seems to have had a most productive relationship) and the editor of The Times are admonished for referring to ‘St. Christopher’s
Hospice for the Dying’ - "those last three words are not part of our title". And whilst actively contributing to all the positive aspects of hospice and palliative care, there is a
thread running through the years that underlines her unshakeable opposition to euthanasia; her letters to Jack Kevorkian and to the Dutch doctor who advocated that euthanasia was part of good
palliative care are very clear.
As wonderful as all the history is, the real jewel in these pages is Dame Cicely herself. Through her letters, we hear a truly remarkable person. Her vision
and determination are legendary, and the indomitable energy and attention to detail are almost overpowering. But we also hear a compassionate and kind person - caring towards patients, concerned
about family, supportive of colleagues. And, considering her achievements, a person of some humility.
This is a most enjoyable and interesting book. Trained as a nurse and a social worker before graduating in medicine at the age of thirty-nine, Dame Cicely’s
remarkable contributions to the development of hospice and palliative care over the following 40 years are well illustrated in the letters presented here. Listening to her on all manner of issues
to do with hospice and palliative care over the years, one cannot help feeling some of her enthusiasm and motivation. Balfour Mount concludes his Foreword by saying "These letters have helped
to shape medical history. We are indebted to Dame Cicely and David Clark for this precious gift". Very true.
Highly recommended.
Roger Woodruff
Director of Palliative Care, Austin & Repatriation Medical Centre, Melbourne
(October 2002)
Author Information
David Clark is Chair of Medical Sociology, University of Sheffield, and Associate Director, Trent Palliative Care Centre, Sheffield, UK.
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Part I. Realizing a vision (1959-1967) 5
Part II. The expansive years (1968-1985) 125
Part III. An exacting joy (1986-1999) 267
Index 381
