Sheila Cassidy

Sheila Cassidy (born 1937) is a British doctor, known for her work in the hospice movement, as a writer and as someone who, by publicising her own ill treatment, drew attention to human rights abuse in Chile in the 1970s.

Cassidy grew up and went to school in Australia. She began her medical studies at the University of Sydney, Australia and completed them at the Oxford University in the UK (1963). She wanted to become a plastic surgeon but couldn't keep up with the 90 hour week,so she went to practice medicine in Chile during the government of Salvador Allende.

In 1975 while in Chile, Cassidy was caught up in the violence of the Pinochet regime. She gave medical care to a political opponent of the new regime who was being sought by the police. As a result, she was herself arrested by the Chilean secret police, the DINA, and kept in custody without trial. During the early part of her custody, she was severely tortured in the notorious Villa Grimaldi near Santiago, Chile, in order to force her to disclose information about her patient and her other contacts.

On her release from custody and return to the UK, Cassidy's description of her experiences, including her vivid factual account of her torture on the parrilla and her imprisonment, did much to bring to the attention of the UK public the widespread human right abuses that were occurring at the time in Chile. Her story appeared in news media and in her book, Audacity to Believe. .

After a period of recovery from the physical and psychological effects of her ill treatment (during which she became a Nun but found it didn't give her the same satisfaction she had when she was a doctor), Cassidy continued to practise medicine in the UK. In 1982, she became Medical Director of the new St Luke's Hospice in Plymouth, a position which she held for fifteen years. She then then went on to set up a palliative care service for the Plymouth hospitals.

Cassidy is a Roman Catholic and has written a number of books on Christian subjects.