Cicely Saunders - Founder of the Hospice Movement : Selected letters 1959-1999

Dame Cicely conceived of an approach, for dealing with the variety of symptoms and suffering often experienced by patients, with progressive debilitating disease. This book provides an insight into the establishment of the hospice movement and its development world-wide, as recorded through the letters of its founder.

Cicely Saunders is universally acclaimed as a pioneer of modern hospice care. Trained initially in nursing and social work, she qualified in medicine in 1958 and subsequently dedicated the whole of her professional life to improving the care of the dying and bereaved people. Founding St Christopher''s Hospice in London in 1967, she encouraged a radical new approach to end of life care combining attention to physical, social, emotional and spiritual problems, brilliantly captured in her concept of ''total pain''. Her ideas about clinical care, education and research have been hugely influential, leading to numerous prizes and awards in recognition of her humanitarian achievements. In this book the sociologist and historian David Clark presents a selection of her vast correspondence, together with his own commentary. The letters of Cicely Saunders tell a remarkable story of vision, determination and creativity. They should be read by anyone interested in how we die in the modern world.