| Sheila Cassidy |
 Born in 1937, Sheila Cassidy was schooled in Australia and, deciding to study to be a doctor, began medical training at the
University of Sydney, before completing her studies at Oxford. Then followed a variety of junior jobs in accident and emergency
departments, and plastic surgery. Sheila Cassidy went on to practice medicine in South America, and in 1975 was tortured for
treating a political suspect in Pinochet's Chile. This traumatic episode was widely reported in the Press, and associated
Sheila Cassidy's name with the Human Rights movement. After periods of religious retreat in both a monastery and a convent,
Sheila Cassidy returned to practise medicine in 1980 in the radiotherapy department of Freedom Fields Hospital in Plymouth.
Two years later, in 1982, she was appointed Medical Director of the new St Luke's Hospice in Plymouth, a position which she
held for fifteen years. The interview describes the expansion of services at St Luke's and the move to a larger building.
Sheila Cassidy then went on to set up a palliative care service for Plymouth hospitals as part of the Oncology Directorate,
and discusses psycho-oncology and her interest in bereaved children.
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| Interview conducted by Neil Small, 3 December 1997 |
| Interview Duration: 55 minutes |
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