Dr Mary Miller is a Consultant in Palliative Medicine, specialising in end-of-life care. Mary qualified from University College Cork in 1988 and has practised around the work, coming to Oxford in 1998. Here Mary discusses the challenges of caring for the terminally ill and how her role perhaps requires a different philosophical attitude to that commonly held in the West. Mary also reflects on the last year and the Covid pandemic, elaborating on some of the challenges faced by carers, patients and their families.