From Konstancin to Cavendish: The History of Sue Ryder

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The Eulogy Partnership highlights and celebrates the work of inspirational charities, support networks, and other groups working in the fields of palliative care, hospice services, and end-of-life support. The first charity we chose to highlight is Sue Ryder.

Sue Ryder is a national healthcare charity which provides specialist health and social care services in local communities. The organisation offers support to people affected by a variety of terminal and long-term conditions, including cancer, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease and brain injury. In this first part of Eulogy Magazine’s three-part special on Sue Ryder, Sam Goddard looks at the origins and history of this highly influential charity.

“The courage of the men and women of Special Opetions Executive (SOE) became a legend in their own time. Casualties among them were heavy and many of those captured by the Gestapo were executed under extreme savagery in prisons and concentration camps… The full extent of their contribution to final victory is still very little known and appreciated, but their memory deserves to be honoured for all time” – Sue Ryder, Child of My Love

Much of what characterises the Sue Ryder we know today is inextricably rooted in the character, experiences, and ethos of its founder. It was her experience during the Second World War that definitively set Sue Ryder on a path she was to follow for the rest of her life.

For over 50 years now, Sue Ryder has been a leading light in the provision and development of community-based care services in the UK. Now one of the biggest and most influential healthcare charities in the country, Sue Ryder provides over 4 million hours of care every year, conducts over 1.4 million home visits to people in need per year, and has a 9000 strong volunteer network nationwide.

Lying about her age, she volunteered for the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry at just 15 years old. By age 17 Sue was serving in the Special Operations Executive, Polish section, driving SOE agents and commandos to their top secret missions.

Her time in Poland during the war proved most formative. Hugely impressed by work of the resistance movements there, she became determined to establish a “living memorial to the dead”, seeking and addressing suffering wherever it may be, regardless of race or religion.

In the aftermath of the war, Sue Ryder stayed in Poland to assist with the relief effort - work which brought her into direct contact with survivors of concentration camps, resistance fighters, political prisoners, and refugees. Working amongst Europe’s displaced and stateless clearly had an effect on her; by 1952 Sue Ryder had established holiday schemes for those still in relief camps and a home for ex-prisoners. There soon followed the opening of a number of homes for the sick and disabled, the first of which was St Christopher's in Germany. The first home actually purpose-built by Sue Ryder was in Konstancin, Poland. Her contribution to galvanising the Polish people at a time of desolation and despair cannot be understated. In 1978 Sue was honoured with the title Lady Ryder of Warsaw. She was also awarded Poland’s highest medal of valour.

The Forgotten Allies Trust, soon to become the Sue Ryder Foundation, was established in 1953. Her mother’s house in Cavendish was converted into the organisation’s first UK base, a home to accommodate 40 disabled people and refugees from all over Europe.

Over time, 80 more homes were opened, 24 of which were set up in the UK. 70 more were established abroad, in Poland, Greece, and Yugoslavia, to name but a few. These homes were supported, and still are, by a network of shops and support groups, run and comprised, for the most part, by a network of dedicated volunteers.

It is in this sense – with a heavy emphasis on volunteering – that Sue Ryder has worn the unmistakable mark of its founder for more than half a century. She scrubbed floors, laid bricks, made beds, nursed the sick and dying – all this whilst regularly attending the House of Lords. It is with this same spirit that the foundation is run today; volunteers and support groups really are the lifeblood of Sue Ryder.

Sue Ryder shops are more than just “shops”. They also have a social aspect - providing as much support and meaning to the volunteers as to those the volunteers are helping. Mr. Pawliki, writing about his wife Doris, who volunteered for Sue Ryder from 1963 up until her death in 1998, says:

“In addition to simple shop-business there was also a social angle… Doris would stress at every opportunity that the shop was not ‘just a shop’ it was also a place for lonely people to meet, chat or just stay a while… It was very much the Sue Ryder way of things and was truly rewarding”.

Despite name-changes and even the death of Sue Ryder herself in November 2000, Sue Ryder still operates on all the same principles embodied by its founder: those of hope, love, respect, and most importantly the commitment to providing care where it is needed the most.

To find out more about the Eulogy Partnership, contact Eulogy's editor, Alfred Tong, at alfred.tong@eulogymagazine.co.uk.