Neophyta Kouppi – Matron: Arodaphnousa Hospice, Nicosia
Interviewed by Amanda Bingley, 8 th March 2005 – duration of interview: 35 minutes

Neophyta Kouppi relates how she was the first member of staff to work in the Arodaphnousa Hospice when it was a nursing home, before the Cyprus Anti-Cancer Society knew about specialist palliative care:

‘I started with general nursing in government hospital. But as soon as this hospice was started in 1976, I came here before the patients actually, after the builders went away. Well, I didn’t know anything about hospice by that time. Later on in 1991 I heard about hospice care and I went to London, for a Masters and then to St. Christopher’s, for the training course: ‘931’ ‘The Care of Dying and Care of Family.’

With renewed confidence in her skills, following this specialist training, Neophyta describes how she single-handedly and with great dedication started extending services beyond the in-patient nursing home. From 1991 she started nursing patients in their own homes and through this work set up the first home care team from the hospice, providing care in the Nicosia area. She went on to set up further teams in four other districts around the island. She is now Matron of the 18 bed in-patient unit at the hospice, and over the last ten years has promoted the development of psycho-social and day care services.

Dr Sophia Pantekhi - Medical Director: Arodaphnousa Hospice, Nicosia:
Interviewed by Amanda Bingley, 2 February 2005 – duration of interview: 37 minutes

Sophia Pantekhi speaks of how she was invited to start working as Medical Director in the Arodaphnousa Hospice. In 1998, after having completed her specialty in internal medicine, Sophia applied for a scholarship offered by the Cyprus Anti-Cancer Society to do a full time Masters in Palliative Medicine at Glasgow University, UK. At the instigation of oncologists Dr Helen Soteriou and Dr Adamas Adamou, the Society was seeking a specialist, full-time Medical Director at the in-patient Arodaphnousa Hospice. Having completed her Master’s in 1999, Sophia returned to take up the position of Medical Director. She has encouraged a number of important initiatives at the hospice, including the training of a second doctor, Eleni Karatzia, who is completing a Master’s degree from Kings’ College, London, and began work at the hospice in 2003. With the help of other staff, Sophia has overseen the continuing development of psycho-social services, including art and music therapy; new support services for staff; and improvements to the home-care service so patients can have more options to transfer back to their own home if they wish. Sophia has worked hard to develop training for health professionals at student, post graduate and professional level. She is keen to work towards an integrated palliative care service available within government hospitals and to develop services for all patients at the end of life, regardless of their illness.

Maria-Christina Tchopourian - Psychologist: Cyprus Anti-Cancer Society, Nicosia
Interviewed by Amanda Bingley, 10 March 2005 – duration of interview: 35 minutes

Maria-Christina Tchopourianspeaks of how she came to be involved in palliative care:

‘I studied psychology, and then when I did my Master’s I did ‘thanatological’ counselling, specialising in death related issues and people with chronic diseases; cancer, AIDS, any disease that’s considered chronic. So that was my early interest. At the beginning I was more interested in bereavement and death, but gradually I realized that palliative care could be implemented and I could help people not only at the end of their life but throughout the course of the disease. So I decided that this was what I really wanted to do.’⁴⁰

She applied for a job as with the Cyprus Anti-Cancer Society, and in 1999 was employed full time as the Society’s first psychologist. She now works with one other full time and 5 part time psychologists and 3 full time social workers providing psychosocial support for patients at home, in the hospice and in the oncology centres.

Jane Kakas - Clinical Nurse Specialist, Home care service, The Cyprus Association of Cancer Patients and Friends (PASYKAF)
Interviewed by Amanda Bingley, 8 April 2005 – duration of interview: 75 minutes

Jane Kakas talks about becoming interested in palliative care from her early nursing days:

‘When I worked as a nurse, as a surgical ward sister in the UK, we used to get a lot of referrals from GPs that were patients who were perhaps end stage, into our ward, and I got interested there in pain management and care of the dying. Then when I went to live in Cyprus, I worked in a private hospital where there was little knowledge of pain management. I felt very distressed and frustrated and left as I had an opportunity to go to the UK for a short period. I looked for a relevant course which would benefit my work in Cyprus and luckily got a place on the Care of the Dying 931, the ENB course and I did that at Epsom, at Princess Alice Hospice at Esher. And it was just the nicest six-week time I’ve had, it was so enjoyable and I learned so much. When I came back to Cyprus I was introduced to the current president of our Association – the Cyprus Association of Cancer Patients and Friends – and she said, “let’s meet and see what we can do, we want to start home care”. So in 1992 I went to this Association, had an office - I didn’t really know what to do with it, I didn’t know where to start - but I started to do home care in Nicosia. In 1995, I did the two year, distance learning diploma in pain management at the University of Wales, College of Medicine, in Cardiff. I feel quite passionate about pain and the concept of suffering. I have done my best to share any knowledge with my colleagues and they are all excellent at pain and symptom control, so it was well worth it.⁴¹

After quite a few years in home care, Jane helped organise the use of a wider range of opioids. She is currently working towards developing national procedure and policy for palliative care.