"I couldn't do that" is a remark often made when Sarah Holmes talks about her career.

She explains the reason for the reaction is mainly due to people's perceptions of hospices as places where terminally ill patients spend their dying days. But this is something the newly-appointed medical director of Bradford's Marie Curie Hospice is keen to rectify.

"When I say what I do they say they couldn't do my job, but it's a wonderful job and I feel so privileged that people let us into their lives at this time," says Sarah.

"In medicine it's also one of the most rewarding specialities because we can make a real difference. The hospice is an incredibly cheerful place. There are obviously sad moments but it's a very positive, friendly and cheerful place."

Sarah's role involves overall responsibility for the 16 bed hospice in Maudsley Street, its patients and staff. She oversees the medical care delivered by the hospice's team of junior doctors and community nurse who look after the patients coming in for day therapy.

Her greatest satisfaction, she says, is helping to ease patients' symptoms or pains and, as much as they can, ensuring they enjoy a quality of life.

Before taking on the role in February, Sarah mainly worked in Edinburgh where she trained and qualified to become a GP before specialising as a consultant in palliative medicine.

She was 13 when she decided to become a doctor. "I probably decided I wanted to be a doctor when I was 13. My mum was a nurse and I said to her I wanted to be a nurse."

Her mother, a theatre nurse, encouraged her to be a doctor. "I wanted to make a difference and I enjoy contact with people," says Sarah.

With her future career in mind, she worked and studied hard. After leaving school in Blackpool she went to study in Edinburgh.

"It was a city I really wanted to go to and it has a good reputation as a medical school," she says.

Initially Sarah thought about becoming a paediatric doctor but decided to become a GP. She did various hospital jobs, qualified and started her training to become a GP.

"When I finished training I didn't feel ready to become a GP partner and settle into a practice so I took a job working for Marie Curie," Sarah recalls.

"Working at a hospice in Edinburgh for six months, I changed tack. One of the first patients I had in hospital when I was a junior doctor had cancer. That stuck with me and there had always been a thought I may want to spend time working in a hospice.

"At the end of that I was completely torn about what I should do. I loved working in the hospice but I didn't want to give up general practice because I'd trained for that for a long time."

Sarah decided to split her time working part-time for the hospice and being a GP. "But I decided my niche was in the hospice," she adds.

She embarked on four more years of training to become a consultant in palliative medicine and used her skills working in various hospices in Edinburgh before moving to Yorkshire to be closer to family.

Sarah's previous experience of working with the Marie Curie charity, which celebrates its 60th anniversary next year, has given her a head start in a role she clearly relishes.

This weekend she's pulling on her walking boots to tackle Yorkshire's three peaks with her husband Andrew and Charles Thompson, the hospice's business development manager, to raise cash for Marie Curie. The charity relies heavily on donations to help and support patients within its ten hospices, provide nursing care to patients in their own homes and carry out vital research into cancer cures.

"Working here you realise how precious life is. It also makes you make the most of things," Sarah says.

For more information about a career in medicine, contact Leeds University's School of Medicine on (0113) 2431751 or go to www.leeds.ac.uk. To find out more about Marie Curie, call (01274) 337000 or visit www.mariecurie.org.uk.