Cransley Hospice founder Rev Dr John Smith awarded MBE for services to palliative care

Reverend Dr John Smith, founder of Kettering's Cransley Hospice, has been awarded an MBE for services to palliative care in hospice and in the community in North Northamptonshire.

The honour comes a year after Cransley Hospice celebrated its 25th anniversary milestone and Dr Smith has dedicated his award to the team and his family.

He said: “I’m pleased for Cransley, and Northamptonshire, because for a long time I have said that the hospice and the palliative care service is the soul of the community.

"If I had my way I would like places like Cransley to be rewarded in the same way as people – an equivalent of an MBE – for what they do for the community that is so important.

“I’m particularly proud of of the achievement of the development of Cransley and the fundraising team who all do a most fantastic job , they all go the extra mile.”

Now retired, the former Kettering GP fulfilled an early career goal to work in what is now known as palliative care. He had been inspired as a student doctor after meeting the founder of the modern hospice movement, Dame Cicely Saunders.

Starting out as a family doctor in Kettering, he progressed to becoming a GP trainer – helping more than 75 aspiring doctors – before moving to become a consultant at Cynthia Spencer Hospice in Northampton.

It was while working in the county town that he saw the need for hospice care in the north of the county.

He said: “I recognised the need in the mid-1990s that this end of the county wasn’t getting the service for end of life care that it needed and deserved.”

With only one hospice in the county, Dr Smith wanted patients in the north of the county to be able to access care.

Before the hospice opened on the ground floor of Sunley Court building in November 1988, hospital patients who were approaching the end of their life had been cared for by Dr Smith in Cransley Ward at St Mary’s Hospital, a name that was given to the hospice.

Cransley Ward had provided care for in-patients but there was no room for out-patients, family support or counselling – all important components of palliative care in the hospice and the community. When ExtraCare won the contract to manage the Sunley Court building, Dr Smith asked if they could build a new Cransley – to his ‘surprise’ they agreed.

With the hospice building secured, there came a commitment to securing £1.5m of funding as the NHS does not fund hospices. After many years of dedicated fundraising by a small NHS Charity team, Cransley Hospice Trust, an independent charity, was created in 2012.

The citation for the MBE says: “Without his drive and determination the nine-bed unit would not exist. His constant commitment has helped raise significant funds to support and develop specialist hospice care for the local community.”

Since opening Cransley Hospice has cared for thousands of people in the community with life-limiting illnesses.

Dr Smith has helped train dozens of palliative care doctors who are working across the UK.

In 2005 Dr Smith retired but by then a hospice unit was well established with specialist palliative care consultants. He was ordained as a priest in the Church of England in 2007.

His wife Ann said: “If it wasn’t for John, there wouldn’t have been a hospice. What I admire about him is his commitment to whatever he does – to medicine, to the church and his family.”

As well as being a regular Northants Telegraph columnist, Dr Smith, 78, is still a trustee at – and patron of – Cransley Hospice. Although he is still playing an active role at the St Mary’s Hospital site, he enjoys spending time in his beloved garden, relaxing in Kettering’s coffee shops with wife Ann, and seeing his children and their families.

He added: “I’m pleased for my family for this recognition.

“When I met Dame Cicely Saunders I said to myself ‘that’s what I’m going to do’. What is amazing is that I did it.”

The Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) is given to people who have worked hard for their community over a long time and made a big difference.

Cransley Hospice Trust chief executive, Philip Talbot said: “We are thrilled for our Patron, The Rev Dr John Smith to be receiving this honour. He has made a remarkable contribution to supporting patients and families living with a life limiting illness in this county.

"His commitment and dedication to enable all people to have a better end of life experience through the modern hospice movement has been unwavering. This significant award is so well deserved.”