Epilogue: Making Sense of Cicely Saunders

Cicely Saunders married late in life and had no children. Her closest personal relationships were complicated. Her steely look and assured manner masked years of vulnerability, poor self-image, and struggles with her femininity. She was an unlikely pioneer of an improbable movement. Stripping away the hagiography, there is no doubt that Cicely shaped a new field of medicine which was gaining significant ground by the time of her death, and one which made further progress in the decade following it. A whole generation of palliative-care professionals was trained at St Christopher’s, many of whom spread their knowledge and expertise in other places. The hospice ideal transferred and translated around the world — and eventually led to universal support through the encouragement of the World Health Organization. This chapter concludes the book with an assessment of her legacy — and the complex and demanding life that shaped it.