Diana fund to help dying patients

Diana was killed in a Paris car crash on August 31, 1997

LONDON, England -- A charity fund set up in memory of Diana, Princess of Wales, is launching a £5 million ($7.5 million) initiative to help ease the suffering of the terminally ill in the Third World.

The five-year scheme was being unveiled on Tuesday to mark the fourth anniversary of the fund, which was set up in the days after Diana's death.

It will focus on helping HIV/AIDS and cancer sufferers in east and southern Africa by funding palliative care projects.

Fund chairman Christopher Spence said: "For millions of people in this region the approach of death is characterised by appalling pain, deprivation and neglect.

"The fund's Palliative Care Initiative is essentially a challenge to health policy makers, donors, practitioners and others who care about the issue -- to recognise that people who are dying are human and that the close of life should bring dignity and not diminish their humanity.

"The values that Diana, Princess of Wales, brought to her work with the dying and the bereaved warrant universal application, because they are universally important."

More than 50 million people die each year around the globe and four out of five of these deaths occur in the developing world, according to the fund.

The scheme aims to provide grants to existing projects and to help develop new initiatives, as well as funding training and education programmes for policy makers, medical staff and carers.

It will also lobby governments to include palliative care in their national health plans.

Spence added: "Relevant and holistic palliative care can be delivered cheaply and effectively.

"But much will depend on the health policies of national governments and the various agencies with the capacity to develop and deliver good practice in palliative care in the long term."

Diana -- the former wife of Britain's heir to the throne, Prince Charles -- died in Paris in August 1997.

She was in a car which crashed at high speed while being pursued by photographers. Her companion, Dodi Fayed, and their driver, Henri Paul, were also killed.

The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund, which will mark its fourth anniversary on September 4, will have pledged over £45 million ($68 million) to charities by the end of this year.