In May 1993, Maggie Keswick Jencks was told that her breast cancer had returned and was given two to three months to live. She joined an advanced chemotherapy trial and lived for another 18 months. During that time, she and her husband Charles Jencks worked closely with her medical team, which included oncology nurse, Laura Lee, now Maggie’s Chief Executive, to develop a new approach to cancer care.
In order to live more positively with cancer, Maggie and Charles (an architect) believed you needed information that would allow you to be an informed participant in your medical treatment, stress-reducing strategies, psychological support and the opportunity to meet other people in similar circumstances in a relaxed domestic atmosphere. Maggie was determined that people should not “lose the joy of living in the fear of dying” and the day before she died in June 1995, she sat in her garden, face to the sun and said:
“Aren’t we lucky?”
In November 1996, the first Maggie’s Centre opened in Edinburgh and what Maggie had planned became real.
Every year, over 300,000 people are diagnosed with cancer in the UK, facing tough questions, exhausting treatment and difficult emotions.
These challenges affect not only those with cancer, but their family and friends, too. Maggie’s is there for anyone and everyone affected by cancer, offering a programme of support that has been shown to strengthen physical and emotional wellbeing. Built alongside hospitals, Maggie’s Centres are uplifting places with professional staff on hand to offer the support people need: practical advice about benefits and eating well; emotional support from qualified experts; a friendly place to meet other people; a calming space simply to sit quietly with a cup of tea. It is part of the organisation’s ethos that their buildings and gardens are themselves of a style and standard to make a real contribution to the healing environment.
Maggie’s offers free practical, emotional and social support to people with cancer and their families and friends.
Simply drop-in at any time - you are always welcome, at:
Maggie's Centre Cheltenham
The Lodge
College Baths Road
Cheltenham. GL53 7QB
01242 250611
cheltenham@maggiescentres.org
Opening times:
Monday to Friday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 5 March 2014
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