City Hospice pays tribute to co-founder Dr Elinor Kapp
City Hospice pays tribute to co-founder Dr Elinor Kapp
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City Hospice in Cardiff has paid tribute to one of its founders, Dr Elinor Kapp, who has died peacefully over the weekend.
Dr Kapp, who was instrumental in transforming end-of-life care in the Welsh capital, recognised in the early 1980s the urgent need for a palliative care service in the city. Her work led to the founding of City Hospice in 1984, creating a new model of support for patients and families and changing how hospice care was understood and delivered in the community.
Over the next four decades, she remained at the centre of the charity’s development. She served as a trustee for more than 40 years and took on key leadership roles, including many years as Chair of the Clinical Governance Committee. Colleagues said she guided the organisation with compassion and a steadfast commitment to maintaining the highest possible standards of care.
Paying tribute, Dr Liz Booyse, Chief Executive of City Hospice, said: “Elinor’s vision and dedication shaped the very heart of our charity, touching the lives of countless families across Cardiff over four decades. She pioneered community-based hospice services that enabled people to live fully and spend their final days with dignity and love. She embodied our values of passion, compassion, empowerment and knowledge, inspiring all who knew her.
“Dr Elinor Kapp will live on in the care we continue to provide, and will be greatly missed by all of us at City Hospice.”
City Hospice is the only provider of home-based specialist palliative care in the capital. Its clinical team supports people with terminal or life-limiting illnesses, while also offering bereavement counselling and family support services. Dr Kapp’s early vision of care rooted in the community continues to underpin the charity’s work today.
As news of her death was shared, tributes have been pouring in from supporters, staff, and families who have been touched by her legacy. A book of condolences has been placed in the conservatory at Ty Hosbis in Whitchurch, where supporters are invited to reflect, leave messages, and read tributes to Dr Kapp.
Dr Kapp’s contribution to medicine and hospice care extended beyond Cardiff. Her approach helped shape wider conversations in Wales about the importance of dignified, person-centred end-of-life support. For those who worked alongside her, she was seen not just as a founder, but as a constant source of guidance and inspiration.
Her passing marks the end of a remarkable chapter in the story of City Hospice, but her influence is set to endure through the thousands of families the organisation continues to serve each year.
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