1969: 2 papers catch my eye: one on symptom control, one on talking to patients. After 4 years as a doctor, I wondered could one really do both well? She said you could. So, 1973. Entered St Christopher's, expecting perfection. Cicely lit the light: Mary Baines, Tom West and Therese Vanier fanned it. Two weeks later, I left excited and challenged, not by seeming perfection but by the untidy realism of hospice care. 37 years on, I and countless others remain inspired.

Our Chinese light? From Bee's family in Malaysia, it lights a realistically untidy mantelpiece in our new home.