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  Physician, writer, medical director and pioneer of modern palliative care, Saunders established St. Christopher's Hospice in 1967, as the first research and teaching hospice linked with clinical care. St. Christopher's aims to provide the relief of 'total pain' through physical, psychological, social and spiritual care. Dame Cicely was President and a Founder Trustee of the Cicely Saunders Foundation, a charity set up in 2002 to improve the care of people at the end of life, wherever they are cared for.

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    Painted in Dame Cicely's home during regular weekly sittings this portrait is a witness to a close bond between the subject and artist and a poignant record of Dame Cicely's own battle with pain, having undergone further surgery for cancer during the sittings. Becoming fascinated and engaged by the collaborative nature of the process Dame Cicely said to the artist on the portrait's completion: 'I see this as much my work as yours'.