Reflections on the Death of Dr. Balfour Mount – Honorary Patron- 2025/10/01
With honour, gratitude, and respect, we remember Dr. Balfour Mount—our friend, mentor, and Honorary Patron—whose life’s work changed the way we care for one another at the end of life. Dr. Mount passed away on September 25, 2025.
When we think of one person who carried a torch to alleviate suffering and enhance dignity for terminally ill patients and their loved ones, we think of Dr. Balfour Mount. We take this opportunity not only to recognize Dr. Mount’s extraordinary accomplishments, but also to reflect on his friendship and continued inspiration that brings tremendous meaning to our work as the Valley Hospice Foundation.
Dr. Mount began his career as a urologic-cancer surgeon before being moved by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’ On Death and Dying and his own experience as a cancer patient. His work studying how people died in hospital revealed a painful truth: too many died badly. That realization led him to St. Christopher’s Hospice in England, where he found inspiration for what became his life’s calling. Returning to Canada, he coined the very term palliative care and became the driving force in establishing its practice across North America.
Dr. Mount’s work reminds us always that the care is not simply to treat disease, but to meet people where they are, tending to their physical, psychosocial, and spiritual needs in pursuit of quality of life.
Reflecting on her friendship with Bal, Diana Patterson, our past chair, described a warm and caring person, whose characteristics were translated in his work. He often stressed how hospice and palliative care isn’t simply about the person who is dying: it’s about the whole unit. All those who love the person who is dying need to be cared for. This is how meaning is found at the end of life. We carry this vision forward in our work and in his memory.
Dr. Mount’s vision of whole-person care has guided our care teams and the mission of the Valley Hospice Foundation since our beginnings. His warmth, wisdom, and encouragement gave us strength through challenges, reminding us never to lose sight of the dignity and comfort our community deserves, so we would never give up on the establishment of our beloved Hospice.
His words, which are inscribed on the walls of the Valley Hospice, continue to inspire all who enter:
“In Palliative Care we work as a team using state-of-the-art medical care coupled with attention to the multilayered challenges encountered at the end of life, thus enabling a shift from a preoccupation with suffering and anguish to a growing experience of integrity, wholeness and inner peace.”
Dr. Mount’s legacy is immense. He was the Founding Director of the Royal Victoria Hospital Palliative Care Service, Founding Director of Palliative Care McGill, and Founding Director of the McGill Programs in Integrated Whole Person Care. He was the Eric M. Flanders Emeritus Professor of Palliative Care at McGill University, a Member and later Officer of the Order of Canada, an Officer of the National Order of Quebec, and an inductee into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.
Though we mourn his passing, we also celebrate a life that has touched countless patients, families, caregivers, and communities. His leadership, advocacy, and vision will live on in every act of compassion within the Valley Hospice, and in every hospice and palliative program inspired by his work.
