| Gillian Ford |
 Born in 1934 in Eastbourne, Gillian Ford’s earliest memories are of war. After boarding school, Gillian Ford went to Oxford
to study medicine, and to St Thomas’s Hospital for clinical training, finally qualifying in 1959. After house jobs in ophthalmology,
Gillian Ford’s early career involved her in the Oxford/Reading ophthalmology circuit. However, feeling her surgical skills
were not good enough, she went on to do a course in general medicine at the Hammersmith Hospital where an advertisement in
the British Medical Journal for trainee medical officers for the Department of Health caught her eye. Gillian Ford began work
in the Department as a medical officer in 1965, rising to Deputy Chief Medical Officer by 1977. During the 1960s, her flat
mate at Connaught Square was Cicely Saunders, and Gillian Ford was able to help promote hospice within the Department of Health,
along with Dame Albertine Winner. Gillian Ford was also seconded to St Christopher’s between 1985 and 1989 to work as Director
of Studies, and now works part-time for Marie Curie. The interview also talks about the proliferation of local hospices and
the 1980 Wilkes’ Report, the Association of Palliative Medicine and the development of the Specialty in 1987, as well as multidisciplinary
and medical education in palliative care. Gillian Ford retired from Marie Curie Cancer care in May 1997.
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| Interview conducted by David Clark, 6 June 1996 |
| Interview Duration: 1 hour, 42 minutes |
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