Dr Odette Spruijt was Director of the Peter Mac Department of Palliative Medicine from 1998-2014 and is now Medical Director of the Tasmanian North SPCS.  Following an early experience as a volunteer in India in 1987, she developed a commitment to the international development of palliative care and addressing the global access abyss (Lancet Commission 2018). She established Australasian Palliative Link International (APLI) and been a Project Hamrahi mentor in India. She completed her PhD in 2020, a narrative exploration of the experiences of palliative care doctors in India and Australia, of the relief of patients’ suffering.