In Focus: Dame Cicely Saunders

In Focus: Dame Cicely Saunders gave an in depth look at the life of this remarkable woman who transformed palliative care and introduced the modern hospice movement. 

Dame Cicely Saunders used her vast experience as a nurse, almoner and then a doctor, alongside her religious beliefs to improve the lives of patients and their families who were living with terminal illness. Starting with her time at the Nightingale Training School, she built up a wealth of knowledge about pain and caring for the terminally ill. Throughout her studies, paid work and voluntary commitments, her focus was always on the patients and relieving their symptoms. This eventually led to her becoming a world-renowned expert on the care of the terminally ill. She helped to spread her work by inviting people from across the globe to see the hospice she had set up based on her life’s work and experience.

In this exhibition we celebrated the life and work of this incredible person, 20 years on from her death.

Please note: This exhibition contains references to end-of-life care and terminal illness. We appreciate that this is a sensitive topic and want visitors to take care of themselves.

We would like to thank St Christopher’s Hospice, the Cicely Saunders Institute and the Kings College London Archives for their kind support on this exhibition.