Our history
How we have supported people in their most difficult moments, since 1954.
Who was Lady Sue Ryder?
Lady Sue Ryder was born in 1924 to a wealthy family in Yorkshire. She was a humanitarian who was inspired to help people by the work of her mother, her experiences on the frontline in Nazi-occupied Europe and her faith. She left the charity in 1998 and died in 2000.
How did the charity Sue Ryder start?
The first Sue Ryder home in the UK opened in Lady Ryder‘s mother’s house in Cavendish, Suffolk, in 1952. Its first patients were survivors of the concentration camps.
The scope of Lady Ryder’s work later widened to include supporting people with palliative and neurological conditions.
In 1974, a home for cancer patients was opened. Our centres in Leckhampton and South Oxfordshire also began as places for people with cancer to be cared for, and were opened soon after.
What does Sue Ryder do now?
The work of the charity has changed a lot since 1952.
We now provide expert care to people at the end of their lives whatever their health needs. We do this from our seven specialist centres and in people’s homes in many areas of the UK.
We also offer bereavement support nationally, through our online bereavement counselling, our online community or online advice and information resources Grief Guide and Grief Coach.
We also campaign for change so that everyone who is approaching the end of their life or grieving has access to the right support, at the right time.
And we seek to break down the barriers to talking about dying and grief - so we can all be better prepared and better equipped to be there for each other.