My connection with St Christopher’s began in 1981 when I was appointed as the first Director of Studies.... One of the most pleasing later developments I began to notice was the use of the word ‘hospice’ ( lower case ’h’) as a generic term for high quality end of life care, not necessarily in-patient, but community and home based; proof that the concept had arrived in the language.

A more recent pleasure has been maintaining contacts with the Education Centre, through our mutual interests in the importance of resilience in adversity, sharing lectures with some of the remarkable Holocaust survivors about whom I had written a book in 2003. Out of this developed an invitation in 2007 to write a chapter for Barbara Monroe (Chief Executive)’s  and David Oliviere (present Director of Education)’s book, Resilience in Palliative Care.

This has been a delightful and fruitful association resulting in the need for repeat visits to St Christopher’s, where I am always made extremely welcome, after so many years.