2025 is our 20th Anniversary – it was in March 2005 that ICPCN was formed by a group of pioneers attending a meeting in Seoul, South Korea and Joan Marston was elected as the first Chair of ICPCN and Barbara Gelb and Lizzie Chambers as Vice Chairs. Since then ICPCN has been involved in shaping and developing children’s palliative care around the world through Communication , Advocacy, Research, Education and Strategic Development (ICPCN CARES).
Our recent Mapping has shown that whilst recognising there is still a long way to go to ensure that all children who need palliative care around the world have access to palliative care services, there has also been much development as people around the world have improved palliative care provision for babies, children and young people. The recent WISH report on palliative care discusses development since the 2014 World Health Assembly Resolution on palliative care, but what also needs to be done to improve care provision.
In this our 20th year ICPCN will be looking back over events, achievements and milestones in the field of children’s palliative care, celebrating these throughout 2025. We will also be looking ahead at the horizons, how can we continue to improve access to palliative care for children around the world.
During this year we will be asking some of you for your stories and memories of ICPCN’s work over the past 20 years, as well as looking ahead as we plan our strategy for the next 5-10 years. As we celebrate our 20 years we are delighted that Lizzie, one of our first co-chairs is now working for ICPCN and sharing her knowledge and expertise. So if you have any thoughts, memories, photos of significant events etc that you would be happy to share please do contact us through Lizzie on programme.manager@icpcn.org
ICPCN’s first Board celebrating in Prague when we were officially registered as an organisation