Palliative care is a specialised area of healthcare focused on relieving and preventing the suffering of patients. Great Ormond Street Hospital and the UCL Institute of Child Health are marking a new chapter with the opening of the Louis Dundas Centre for Children’s Palliative Care.

Louis Dundas was a patient at Great Ormond Street Hospital who died from a brain tumour in April 2008, aged four. After seeing first hand the role of palliative care, his family wished to draw attention to this cause and raise funding for research, training and practice. The result was the Louis Dundas Centre for Children’s Palliative Care, created in their son’s name for the benefit of very sick children.

Being diagnosed with a life-threatening or life-limiting condition is a traumatic experience for any child and their family. Palliative care is delivered alongside disease-directed treatment, addressing the physical, emotional, social and spiritual needs of the child and family to enhance their quality of life. With no other team in the world seeing as many children with so many different life-threatening illnesses and life-limiting conditions, Great Ormond Street Hospital is the perfect place to bring palliative care research into meaningful practice.

Professor Myra Bluebond-Langner, the True Colours Chair in Palliative Care for Children and Young People, will head up the research programmes at the centre. Bringing academic research and clinical expertise together, the Centre will establish strong links with family doctors and schools, local hospitals and hospices to ensure children can have access to high quality care when and where they need it most.