Dr Sheila Cassidy (1937-)
Sheila Cassidy qualified in medicine at Oxford in 1963 and embarked upon a career in what she calls ‘mending broken people’. In 1971 she went with her beloved chow, Winston, on a cargo boat to Chile where with her halting Spanish she worked in A&E for three years. In October 1974 she was asked to treat a wounded revolutionary which led to arrest, torture and 2 months detention in Chile as a political prisoner. Subsequently, after a year lecturing human rights at home and abroad, Sheila was offered the post of Medical Director at Plymouth’s new Hospice for the terminally ill, St Luke’s. This began a twenty-year career in what is called Palliative Care: not mending broken people but caring for them and reducing their physical and emotional distress until they died. After ten years at St Luke’s, Sheila moved to the Oncology Department at Derriford Hospital where she established two new, but related, services, The Mustard Tree, a drop-in centre for cancer patients and Jeremiah’s Journey, a group therapy programme for bereaved children and young people. She was made a Freeman of the City in 1998. In her spare time, she writes, paints, sews and walks her chow on Plymouth Hoe while continuing making a powerful contribution to the city’s wellbeing through her ongoing initiatives.