Colin Murray Parkes is Consultant Psychiatrist Emeritus at St Christopher's Hospice and Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist to the Royal London Hospital and the Tavistock Clinic, London. He is Life President of Cruse Bereavement Care and in 1996 was awarded an OBE for services to bereaved people.

Holly Prigerson is Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School and Director at the Centre for Psycho-oncology and Palliative Care Research, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, USA.