# Dame Cicely Saunders

Source: https://onco.cc/people/cicely-saunders/  
OnCo record `cicely-saunders` (Person). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Nurse, social worker and doctor who opened St Christopher's Hospice in 1967 and established that pain in advanced cancer could be prevented with regular oral morphine and attention to the whole person.

## Summary

Cicely Saunders (1918-2005) trained first as a nurse and then as a medical social worker before, at the suggestion of a surgeon, qualifying as a doctor in 1957 so that she would be listened to. Working at St Joseph's Hospice in Hackney, she showed that giving oral opioids by the clock rather than on demand kept patients with advanced cancer free of pain and alert, and she described total pain as physical, emotional, social and spiritual. In 1967 she opened St Christopher's Hospice in south London, the first to combine care, teaching and research, and it became the model for hospices and palliative care services worldwide. She was made a Dame in 1979 and received the Order of Merit in 1989. Palliative medicine became a recognised specialty in Britain in 1987 largely on the foundations she laid.

## Fields

- Kind: Person
- Last checked: 2026-09-09
- Tags: hero; advocate; pioneer
- Role: Founder of the modern hospice movement
- Specialisms: Palliative care; Hospice; Cancer pain

## Sources

- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicely_Saunders
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicely_Saunders
- St Christopher's Hospice: https://www.stchristophers.org.uk/
- Cicely Saunders International: https://cicelysaundersinternational.org/

## Connected records

- fronts: [Supportive Care & Survivorship](https://onco.cc/fronts/supportive-care/)
- technologies: [Cancer pain management](https://onco.cc/technologies/pain-management/), [Early integrated palliative care](https://onco.cc/technologies/palliative-care/), [Hospice and end-of-life care](https://onco.cc/technologies/hospice-end-of-life/)
- bottlenecks: [Pain relief and palliative care are unavailable to most](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-palliative/), [Toxicity and quality of life are undervalued](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-toxicity-qol/)

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