Since her death on May 18, 2025, there has been an outpouring of love and appreciation for Dr. Anne Merriman, who spent a lifetime delivering palliative care in Uganda, training practitioners, and speaking up internationally for essential medicines to relieve pain in Africa, where the medicines are often scarce.
Anne Merriman was a British missionary doctor who founded Hospice Africa Uganda after the then-Ugandan Minister of Health, James Makumbi, said to her, "My people are suffering. Come in with your morphine and control their pain.” She made her home outside Kampala, becoming a lifelong advocate of palliative care in Africa, where she lived and worked to deliver and entrench relief of suffering until her recent death, at age 90. Photo by Katherine Pettus used with permission.
In 2021, Dr. Merriman said: "I arrived in Uganda in 1993 having decided that this beautiful, caring yet sad country was the best place from which Hospice Africa could develop its model of care." Photo by Katherine Pettus used with permission.
Her Mission of Pain Control Resonated with Me
It was Dr. Anne Merriman’s singlemindedness regarding adequate pain control for her hospice patients in Africa and around the world that resonated from the moment I heard her speak at a conference on international palliative care at the University of Fresno Medical Center in 2012.
I was very new to the field, just a hospice volunteer, and appalled to learn that paracetamol (acetaminophen) was the only available medicine for advanced cancer pain and gunshot wounds in most of Africa. Dr. M.R. Rajagopal, the chair of Pallium India, also attended that meeting and both he and Anne became my mentors in the field of global advocacy for controlled medicines. Ana Restrepo, another speaker, one of IAHPC’s original employees and now a veteran volunteer, described to the audience a horrendous situation where a woman in Bogotá posted want ads for morphine for her dying mother, as none was available at the pharmacy.
Dr. Anne visiting a patient in 2016, painted by my sister Ruth. Photo by Katherine Pettus used with permission.
Back to Dr. Anne, a former Medical Missionary of Mary, whose Benedictine ethos of hospitality was famed among both her friends and her patients. Like so many others, I used to stay at her home with her African family in Munyonyo, outside Kampala, and went out with the team to see patients, whose stories I tell in Global Palliative Care: Reports from the Peripheries. The cover features a painting of my photograph of Anne and her team at the bedside of a patient we visited in Addis Ababa in 2016. Anne sent me a voice message a couple of days before she died, sounding very weak and hard to hear, thanking IAHPC for the work we do and urging me to carry on. She charged me with a mission I can never walk away from now and will assuredly continue to mentor me from the other side where I do believe she is dancing a jig with Pope Francis, and then trying the tango.
Some quotes from the eulogies at her funeral mass, which is worth watching in full, stuck with me:
Rose Kiwanuka, Anne’s first nurse before Hospice Africa was founded: “She always said you should have fire in the belly and I think all palliative care practitioners have fire in the belly. That fire in the belly makes practitioners see patients, walking upcountry where there is no transportation. The palliative care practitioners upcountry walk, to find patients in their homes. Dr. Anne, your legacy will continue."
Dr. Anne's first cousin’s son, Chris, represented the family: “This was her ethos: The obstacle in the path becomes the path. Never forget, within every obstacle is an opportunity to improve our condition. [From Ryan Holiday's The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph.] This is what she was like: If you have yet to be called an incorrigible, defiant woman, don't worry, there is still time. [From Clarissa Pinkola Estés', Women Who Run with the Wolves.]"
And, finally, “Is this what dying is like? I didn’t know it would be this hard. I’m ready.”
'She Made People Feel That They Could Change the World'
Some years ago, I was part of the faculty for a research training course in Kampala, and had the great honor of being invited to Anne's home for dinner. There was a large group of guests at her house, both locals and visitors from abroad, and I remember the warm feeling of friendship, our discussions on the shared values and work in palliative care, and the overwhelming hospitality in her house. I also remember distinctly the feeling of awe and respect for Anne, as one of the pioneers of palliative care in India and Africa. She had such a commanding presence, and even though at that time I had long years of expertise and had chaired international palliative care organizations, I felt rather insignificant in her presence.
I had the honor of meeting Anne a few times thereafter, in Africa and in Europe, and always felt a bit timid when meeting her. She conveyed the feeling that I just had to try a little bit harder to improve palliative care globally. I think that this is why she was such a good pioneer for palliative care: because she made people feel that they could really change the world, and that they should never stop trying.
Even though our meetings were not too many and not too long, she is someone that influenced my work tremendously. I was even more impressed when she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014. Alas, she was not granted the award, but I think there never was a person more worthy of the nomination. It is with deep sadness that I heard of her death, and I will keep the fondest memories of our encounters in my mind.
—IAHPC Chair Lukas Radbruch
An 'Extraordinary Trailblazer'
“I would like to extend my condolences to Dr. Anne Merriman’s family, friends, and colleagues. Anne was an extraordinary trailblazer in the field of palliative care, especially in low- and middle-income countries.
Her work in Hospice Uganda provided a model for innovations that were later reproduced globally. I learned from her how to prepare morphine liquid solutions with different colors depending on the concentration, and processes to educate and empower family members and friends to deliver medical, psychosocial, and spiritual care to their loved ones in the hospice and at home. Dr. Merriman was a passionate advocate for compassionate care and dignity close to the end of life, and her contributions improved palliative care everywhere. I will greatly miss her assertive, passionate, and kind presence in our meetings and congresses. Godspeed, Dr. Anne Merriman.
—former IAHPC chair Eduardo Bruera
'She Was a Strong, Independent, Opinionated Female Physician'
Dr. Anne, as she was most often called, was a colleague for 20-plus years. The Open Society Foundation’s International Palliative Care Initiative, which I directed, supported Dr. Anne’s Hospice Africa Uganda in the 1990s. It served as a center of excellence for training and educating doctors and nurses not only throughout Africa but also visitors from abroad. Her work to make oral morphine available throughout Uganda was used as a model for the entire world. If it could be done in Uganda, it could be done everywhere. She worked closely with government officials and turned them into palliative care advocates.
Dr. Anne welcomed me into her home, as she did with so many, and I benefitted enormously from her friendship. We shared a deep love and appreciation for all animals, especially dogs, and whenever I visited she would show me her latest brood. Whether it was a new litter of pups or providing palliative care to one she had had for years, she loved them all. Dr. Anne’s Uganda family made it possible for her to remain in her home there to the end, and she loved them deeply for all they did for her.
Anne’s faith was her bedrock. She led an enviable life and was greatly respected and admired—but she wasn’t a pushover. She was a strong, independent, opinionated female physician and every patient’s very best advocate. You always wanted Dr. Anne on your side of any issue. She travelled the world teaching and lecturing at conferences. If Dr. Anne was on the program, people came to hear what she had to say.
The field of palliative care has lost a great champion, and I a dear friend. God Bless You Always Anne.
—IAHPC Board Member Mary Callaway
In Tribute: A letter to my trainer & guiding light
Whereas I am saddened by your passing, Dr. Anne, I'm very grateful that you envisioned palliative care reaching all in need in Africa, established a model hospice in 1993, and welcomed many to Hospice Africa Uganda, including myself, then a newly-qualified doctor, nearly 22 years ago!
Thank you for mentoring palliative care doctors, giving us the opportunity to specialize in our professions, and growing our number while the specialty of palliative care was so new in Uganda. Indeed, your belief in me in many ways shaped who and what I am today. Thank you.
You were more than a mentor; you were a guiding light, showing us how to control pain and symptoms, and addressing patients' problems in a holistic manner so that the quality of their lives would improve.
Your simple but ingenious formula for compounding morphine solutions not only revolutionized how we treat pain in Uganda, but also transformed how we care for patients across Africa.
You taught both the science and the art of palliative care, and we shall forever cherish the lessons.
Though you are physically gone, your inspiration for palliative care, your training, and your impact on my life will endure.
You lit many candles, sending us to go out with a message of hope to multitudes suffering in Africa, and we shall continue carrying your palliative care light with us as we care for our patients.
May your soul rest in peace Dr. Anne.
—Hospice Africa Uganda Chief Executive Director Eddie Mwebesa
Palliative Care Without Pain Control Is Not Palliative Care
The passing of Anne Merriman is a great loss to the global palliative care community. Her contribution to the development of African palliative care is well known and celebrated, but less is known about her involvement in Malaysia and Singapore.
Anne spent a little of her early medical career in Penang, Malaysia, and often reminisced about this whenever we met. She visited Malaysia several times and each time made a significant contribution to palliative care. On one particular visit during a national palliative care conference, she strongly reminded the audience that "palliative care without pain and symptom control" was not palliative care.
She last visited Malaysia in 2018, but lessons she espoused and memories of her continue to make a lasting impression to the nation. On a personal level, Anne remains a great source of inspiration and personifies the power of overcoming all challenges to palliative care. I truly treasure the "wow" moments that each interaction with her brought.
—Ednin Hamzah, CEO, Hospis Malaysia
A Lasting Legacy of Love & Medicine, Twined Together
I never had the privilege of knowing Dr. Anne Merriman personally, but her legacy speaks for itself—and touches even those of us who never met her. Palliative care, at its heart, is built on the shoulders of extraordinary people like Anne: compassionate, visionary, and relentlessly committed to alleviating suffering. Her work transformed care for people with serious illness across Africa, creating systems of hope where none existed before. As someone working in palliative care, I see daily how her vision still lives on: in the morphine that reaches patients in pain, in the trained hands of providers she helped educate, and in the dignity we strive to uphold for every human life. Thank you, Anne, for showing us what is possible when love and medicine walk hand in hand.
—IAHPC Board Member Gulnara Kunirova,
President, Kazakhstan Association for Palliative Care
'May We Do Justice to Her Legacy'
May we do justice to her legacy and may God grant comfort to all those who knew her, loved her, and were inspired by her life.
—IAHPC Board Member Natalie Greaves
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