Dame Cicely Saunders was born on the 22nd June 1918.

Cicely trained as a medical social worker, a nurse and as a physician. Since 1948, she has been involved in the care of patients with terminal illness, wrote many different articles and contributed to lots of books. In 1967, she founded St. Christophers hospice as the first teaching and research hospice linked with clinical care, also finding the use of palliative care. In 1963, Dame began fundraising for St. Christophers hospice and by 1967 she had managed to raise 500,000. This went towards building costs, and she had signed a contract with the regional board. As the work expanded, the funding reduced quite a bit. They required lots more fundraising in order to fill a gap running to several million pounds. By 1970, she had contracts with teaching hospitals local to St. Christophers hospice, and the system of funding stayed in place for several years, until funding arrangements were taken over by local health authorities. Dame was also involved with the creation of hospice teams around the world. She is worldwide known as the founder of the modern hospice movement, and received many awards for her work, including the British medical association gold medal for services to medicine, the Onassis prize for services to humanity and the Roosevelt four freedoms for worship medal. In 1980, she was also made dame of the British Empire and in 1989 she was awarded the order of merit by her majesty the queen. During her 34 years as a medical director, chairman and founder of St. Christopher hospice, she was also a trustee of a number of trusts such as member of the medical research council, attendance allowance board and national council for hospice and specialist palliative care services.