The lamp in this picture is at my desk at St. Christopher’s Hospice. I have now returned to work at the hospice after 25 years disseminating palliative care principles within the generalist setting.

In my picture you can see a couple of postcards similar to the ‘coming day cards’ that Dame Cicely would send to staff who worked at St Christopher’s. One of the things that I feel underpinned Dame Cicely’s work was the respect and value she placed on people whether a patient, a family member or staff; ever since I have always tried to emanate this. The cards were always handwritten by Dame Cicely with a personal message of encouragement. It was a little thing, but receiving a card made you feel valued for the work you did towards the overall care at the hospice and I believe encouraged you to value those around you.

The ‘nuts in the basket’ are there to remind me of her words when I left St Christopher’s in 1982 to start a hospital-based palliative care team at Barts - “Barts is going to be a hard nut to crack!”.