This crystal lamp lights my bedtime reading where I like to read books that inspire me—just as Dame Cicely’s story inspired me when St Christopher’s Hospice was nominated for the Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize.

Meeting this legend who launched the global hospice movement was a very moving experience for me—particularly because my husband received care at a hospice in the United States. This hospice would not have existed except for Cicely’s inspirational influence when she first lectured in the U.S. in 1963 on her approach to care for the dying.

Although Cicely had already stopped traveling in 2001, she made an exception to come to New York City to accept the Hilton Humanitarian Prize, where the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan paid tribute to her accomplishments.