World Hospice and Palliative Care Day – Oct. 10, 2026

Expected World Hospice and Palliative Care Day Deals

For World Hospice and Palliative Care Day, the focus shifts from commercial deals to fundraising and advocacy for compassionate care. Organizations like the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) and the Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance (WHPCA) often partner with corporate sponsors for donation matching campaigns and awareness drives. Look for local hospice providers to host open houses, educational events, or fundraising walks. Many healthcare systems, such as Kaiser Permanente or Providence Health & Services, will highlight their palliative care services and invite community support. Pharmaceutical companies like Bristol Myers Squibb or Pfizer, invested in pain management and supportive care, may sponsor research or public education initiatives. Retailers might offer opportunities to round up purchases for hospice charities. We will update this page with confirmed live events and fundraising opportunities as October approaches.

History of World Hospice and Palliative Care Day

Throughout time, people have suffered life-limiting illnesses but there wasn’t always a system in place to make sure that their last days were comfortable. In the nineteenth century, the action of hospice care was taken on primarily by women. They were religious and philanthropic volunteers that serviced the sick across countries and continents without knowledge of each other. The attention hospice care would achieve in the next century would be because of these women.

By the twentieth century, more hospitals with hospice care were established. They became so vital that many facilities received more beds and more people joined to help the cause. The Sisters of Charity was an organization in Ireland that helped the impoverished population of Dublin in the nineteenth century, and by the twentieth, they had developed other facilities across the globe. This included St. Joseph’s Hospice, which was critical in the history of palliative care.

In 1967 Cicely Saunders influenced the modern concept of Hospice Care. Dr. Saunders directed St. Christopher’s hospice in England and she was a champion in developing the philosophy of end-of-life care and hospice practices that spread globally. During that time in the US, volunteers were the ones who cared for patients that were dying and many followed her lead.

In 1987, Dr. Declan Walsh established the first hospital-based palliative care center at the Cleveland Center. Medicare authorized formal hospice care in the 1990s and the treatment of such efforts was taken more seriously. Today, there are thousands of hospice agencies across the globe and it continues to grow. The first World Hospice and Palliative Care Day was held in 2005 and it’s been going strong ever since.

How Businesses Can Celebrate World Hospice and Palliative Care Day