Marie Curie tribute to late MP Hywel Francis

Simon Jones, Director of Community Development at Marie Curie, pays tribute to former MP and leading end of life care voice Hywel Francis

"Professor Hywel Francis, ex-MP, distinguished historian, devoted family man, passionate Welshman and as decent a human being as you could ever hope to meet died over the weekend.

"I first met Hywel during the 84/85 Miners Strike. He was still in the Communist Party at the time and had the idea of setting up an organisation to support mining communities in all their forms. He became the Chair and I was his Secretary. Eloquence and Hywel went hand in hand, it was a huge part of his charm, and a big part of my role as Secretary was to get the meetings to an end before the pub closed.
The Wales Congress in Support of Mining Communities did great things during that difficult time. I think I recall correctly Hywel welcoming the Flying Pickets, Elvis Costello and the South Wales Striking Miners Male Voice Choir to various stages in Wales and London. One of the legacies of the funds we raised was to bring Paul Robeson Jr over to Wales for the first time. A long held ambition of Hywel.

"He championed carers drawing on the experience of his and his wife, Mair, caring for their son Sam, who I had the privilege of knowing, and who died all too young. His commitment to supporting carers found voice and purpose after he had been elected to Westminster through his successful Private Members Bill giving carers important extra rights.

"He was an incredible historian, the driving force behind the setting up of the South Wales Miners' Library and a diligent collector of oral history. You could not spend any length of time in Hywel's company without him recounting tales he had been told by people he had been collecting memories of industrial south Wales from.

"And then, most recently, our paths crossed in the context of end of life care in Wales, another aspect of our lives that Hywel could influence and bring his passion and compassion to. Asked by the Health Minster to Chair the equivalent in Wales of Dying Matters, Hywel approached the role with the same vigour and commitment he brought to everything he became involved in. We owe the name of that organisation, Byw Nawr – Live Now, to Hywel, a name which captured in two short words his energy, passion for life and all who live it.

"Being the academic he was there would always be well thought out logic to any of his views or suggestions. We owe another important name in end of life care to Hywel – Wales as a Compassionate Country. Without him, it would have been Wales as a Compassionate Nation. Only those few of us in the room at the time will have the privilege and pleasure recalling his passionate exposition on nationhood, nationalism and the baggage it brought with it, Country it would be.

"None of us would have reckoned on the work Hywel did campaigning for the best possible end of life experience in Wales being a key part of what he did at the end of his life. There will be many, many debts of gratitude to Hywel earned over decades of selfless public service. In Marie Curie we owe him one for his leading and important voice in end of life care in Wales. We sincerely thank you, Hywel, mourn your loss and celebrate your life."