‘You matter to the last moment of your life’: cataloguing the papers of modern hospice pioneer Dame Cicely Saunders (1918-2005)

This project is to preserve and facilitate scholarly access to the personal collection of Dame Cicely Saunders. Throughout her career as a nurse, clinician and practical care-giver, she helped to shape modern perceptions of palliative treatment - the expectation that people who are chronically ill should be relieved of pain and their dignity preserved in the face of death. The collection will be useful to anyone interested in Saunders’ holistic approach to care, the history of drug therapies, particularly in relation to pain relief, and specific terminal conditions including cancer.