ABSTRACT
The development of the modern hospice movement, in the UK and the USA, challenged conventional thinking that symptoms could not be controlled and that death was failure. Although a small number of homes for the dying had existed for many years, the development by Dame Cicely Saunders of St Christopher’s Hospice in South London in 1967 marks for many the beginning of a modern hospice movement. Dame Cicely did not just want to improve care for the patients admitted to St Christopher’s; by combining research, education and clinical care, she sought to revolutionize the care received by all dying cancer patients.1 Contemporary studies of the experiences of these patients show that such a revolution was badly needed: many terminally ill cancer patients suffered poorly controlled symptoms, received little psychological support, and were largely ignored by doctors.2,3 As a result of the advances achieved within hospice and palliative care, dying from cancer need no longer be such a distressing and isolating experience.
