Dame Cicely Saunders’ 100th Birthday

A pioneer of the modern hospice movement, Dame Cicely Saunders felt that all should live with “a sense of fulfillment and a readiness to let go.”

Born 100 years ago today, Saunders performed many roles in her life, including nurse, doctor, author, and social worker. It was while caring for a terminally ill patient that she recognized certain challenges other medical professionals of her time did not: that his diagnosis required a fundamentally different kind of healthcare.

Through this experience, Saunders envisioned an environment that focused care on a patient’s individual and specific needs. As a result, she went on to found St. Christopher’s, the first modern hospice, in a suburb of London in 1967. There, core values included vigilant pain-management as well as a holistic and individualized understanding of practical, medical, and psychological patient needs.

Not only did Saunders’ work inspire hundreds of other hospices worldwide, but her books and teachings also established a new branch of medicine known as palliative care, which addresses the importance of holistic care among patients with life-limiting illnesses. She also went on to establish a global charity focusing on palliative care research and education, Cicely Saunders International, which still works to improve the lives of patients with progressive illness to this day.

Today’s Doodle, created by London-based guest artist Briony May Smith, was inspired by Saunders' favorite anthology, All In the End is Harvest (1984) which states, “Love and life is an eternal thing, like the growth and reaping of the harvest."

Special thanks to Christopher Saunders, brother of Dame Cicely Saunders and Life President of Cicely Saunders International, for his partnership on this project. Below, Christopher shares his thoughts on his sister:

Cicely came a long way from being a six-foot tall, shy, very intelligent girl who felt like a bit of an outsider, to being one of the very remarkable people who have positively impacted end-of-life care around the world. Yet there is still much work to be done. The need for palliative care has never been greater and is increasing rapidly given that people are living longer as a result of improvements in tackling acute disease. While each illness brings specific physical symptoms such as pain and fatigue, there are also more invisible ones such as helplessness and loneliness, which can too often become part of the final phase of life. Cicely’s medical research charity, Cicely Saunders International, enters the centenary year of her birth energised with the spirit of Cicely to meet these continuing challenges, and make a positive difference just as she did throughout her life.

Early sketches of the Doodle below