My name is Victoria Hewitt and I am a specialist palliative care physician, educator and advocate.

I know what it is like to love someone who is living with an incurable, progressive illness. I have cared for people in the final phase of their lives, professionally and personally.

For the past 10 years I have led an international, online Masters programme in palliative care at Newcastle University, affording me the privilege of hearing “stories from the bedside” from all over the world. In these spaces I discovered one thing that we all had in common – despite disparities in access to services and essential medicines, every narrative is underpinned by a desire to do better.

I am a life-time member of the International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care – the IAHPC – a global platform whose vision is a world free from health-related suffering with universal access to palliative care. Through the IAHPC and Newcastle University’s Policy Academy, I am developing as an advocate, and in this blog I will share my journey.