• proud to represent my palliative medicine colleagues through the Canadian Society of Palliative Medicine (www.pallmed.ca) as we celebrate our 30th anniversary.• champion of a public health approach: palliative care as an essential pillar of the health system where everyone in Canada and globally has access to high quality PC at primary and specialized levels.• privileged to train in medicine, theology, and clinical epidemiology and to be mentored at the bedside by Dame Cicely Saunders, Mary Baines, Balfour Mount, Ina Cummings and other pioneers of our discipline. • committed to academic excellence in the discipline of Palliative Medicine at all levels of training and practice. • inspired by the founding vision of Saunders and Mount:- the culture-shifting,fear-dispelling, life-affirming, inter-professional, and community-engaging philosophy of palliative care.• passionate about treating ‘existential distress/suffering’ using the tools of palliative care, spirituality, and dignity/ meaning therapies and preventing it with public education and early palliative care. • grateful for a career in palliative medicine stretching over 5 decades in 4 Canadian cities enriched by thousands of patients and colleagues.