Advocacy Executive, Palliative Care in Humanitarian Situations and Emergencies (PallCHASE)
Joan Marston is a professional nurse and midwife who has worked in hospice and palliative care since 1989 at the local, national and international levels. Since 1998, she has specialized in palliative care for children, setting up St. Nicholas Children’s Hospice (now known as Sunflower Children’s Hospice) in Bloemfontein, South Africa. Working at the national level, Joan was appointed the first advocacy manager and later the pediatric palliative care manager for the Hospice Palliative Care Association of South Africa (now the Association of Palliative Care Centres) developing the South African national children’s palliative care program, network and curriculum. During that time, she co-founded and became the first chair and CEO of the International Children’s Palliative Care Network (ICPCN).
Since her retirement from the ICPCN, where she remains a global ambassador for children’s palliative care, Joan has taken a leadership role in the integration of palliative care into humanitarian crises and settings. In 2016, she co-founded Palliative Care in Humanitarian Aid Situations and Emergencies (PallCHASE), where she is on the executive committee responsible for advocacy. Joan is also the vice-president of the Elisabeth Kubler-Ross Foundation (EKRF) Global and co-leads the EKRF Fellowship in South Asia.
Active in pediatric palliative care education across many countries, she is an honorary consultant to the Palliative Care Centre of the National Medical University of Kharkiv in Ukraine and teaches for the Paediatric Palliative Care Diploma at the University of Cape Town. Her special interests are in spirituality and spiritual care of children and young people, the history of children’s palliative care, and palliative care in humanitarian settings.
Joan is married to Richard and they are both actively involved with Sunflower Children’s Hospice. They have a married son and daughter, and three gorgeous grandsons. An active member of the Anglican Cathedral in Bloemfontein, she is a Lay Minister and an honorary Canon Emeritus of Blackburn Cathedral in Lancashire, UK.