Our Leadership Team

Our President

St Joseph’s Hospice is proud to have as its President Cardinal Vincent Nichols MA, M.Ed, STL. Cardinal Nichols is Archbishop of Westminster. Born and raised in Crosby, he has known the hospice for many years.

Our Founder

Father Francis O’Leary was a unique person and quite a character. Born in Crosby and ordained as a priest in 1956, he began international missionary work in 1962 and founded a number of hospices around the world, galvanising local support and raising money under very trying circumstances in order to establish the services and provide clinical support for local people. The international hospices eventually became self-funding and independent of the UK charity, and most continue to operate in countries which include Pakistan, Guatemala, Ecuador and Honduras. In 1974 he acquired the property in Thornton which still houses the current, much expanded, St. Joseph's Hospice. Father O'Leary died aged 69 in October 2000, leaving a legacy in the form of the hospice service, and having made an impression on those who knew him that continues to engender feelings of love and affection to this day.