Advance information: March 2007

Events planned in at least 70 countries around the world

Thousands of people around the world will be staging concerts and other events to raise awareness and fundraise for hospice and palliative care services locally, nationally and internationally to mark this annual global event.

This year the official fundraising event of World Hospice and Palliative Care Day is Voices for Hospices, a global musical marathon consisting of a ‘Mexican wave’ across time zones of over 500 concerts taking place on the same day (6th October) at 7.30pm local time in more than 70 countries.

The theme for World Hospice and Palliative Care Day this year is Across the Ages: from Children to Older People, highlighting that people of all ages need access to hospice and palliative care, either as patients or as loved ones or carers of people facing terminal illness.

While the emphasis will be on Voices for Hospices, many different types of international, national and local fundraising and awareness-raising events are anticipated, including an international photography competition, the publication of a report into access to opiates, sponsored walks, exhibitions, celebrations, rallies and professional conferences.

The first ever World Hospice and Palliative Care Day took place in October 2005 with more than 1,100 events taking place in 74 countries. It was launched by HRH Princess Anne in London, and supported by Archbishop Desmond Tutu who described it as “an important global event”. In 2006, Bono and Elton John marked the event by expressing their support for hospice care.

Notes to editors

• Palliative care improves the quality of life of patients and their families through the prevention and relief of suffering by early identification and treatment of pain and other symptoms as well through practical, psychosocial and spiritual support.
• Half of the world’s 234 countries have no palliative care services available to their populations and one third have yet to take the first steps in planning to build service capacity.
• In those countries where hospice and palliative care services are present, provision is mostly localised, with only 15% of countries having achieved a measure of integration with mainstream healthcare service providers. In Pakistan, for example, there is only one service for a population of 158 million.
• Around the world, over one million people die every week.
• There are currently six million cancer deaths and over 10 million new cases of cancer every year, rising to 15 million by 2020.
• It is estimated that 100 million people could benefit from basic palliative care every year. This number is made up of 33 million people dying (60% of the total number dying in the world each year) and their 66 million family members, companions or carers (based on a conservative estimate of two people giving care and support for every person that dies). The actual number of people that receive palliative care is far lower. Although Sub-Saharan Africa has twice as many deaths per 1000 head of population annually as North America, it has only 1.5% of global palliative care resources compared to 55% in North America.

World Hospice and Palliative Care Day has been developed by the following partner organisations:

• African Palliative Care Association
• Asia Pacific Palliative Care Network
• Palliative Care Australia
• Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association
• European Association of Palliative Care
• Eastern and Central European Palliative Care Task Force
• Help the Hospices - UK
• Irish Hospice Foundation
• Indian Association for Palliative Care
• International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care
• International Observatory on End of Life Care at Lancaster University – UK
• Latin American Association for Palliative Care
• National Hospice and Palliative Care Organisation - US
• Open Society Institute – US

To find out more and get involved in World Hospice and Palliative Care Day 2006, visit www.worldday.org, or email

For media enquiries, contact
Jo Pratt, Help the Hospices, tel: 020 8699 6566 / 07734 566079 / or
Katie Brewin, Help the Hospices, tel: 0161 881 7753 /