Maggie’s Fife has marked 10 years of supporting cancer patients and their families.
Opened in 2006 by Gordon Brown and his wife Sarah, who is a Maggie’s patron, the centre has helped thousands of people over the past decade.
Based at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy, Maggie’s Fife provides free advice and emotional support for people affected by cancer.
Centre fundraiser Tu Edwards said: “On behalf of Maggie’s we would like to say thank you to all our supporters for their commitment.
“Over the last 10 years you have helped Maggie’s Fife support over 55,000 visits from people who are facing the enormity of a cancer diagnosis.
“Please join us in the next chapter of our journey and help us grow, so that we can respond to the increasing need to ensure that everyone in Fife has access to cancer support.”
The purpose-built centre was the first permanent structure in the UK designed by the late Dame Zaha Hadid.
Dame Zaha, who was the first woman to receive the Royal Institute of British Architects Gold Medal, famously designed the London Aquatics Centre used in the 2012 Olympics.
The UK’s first Maggie’s Centre was opened in Edinburgh during 1996.
The centres are named after Maggie Keswick Jencks, who died in 1995 from breast cancer.
During her cancer treatment, she and her husband Charles Jencks worked closely with her medical team, including oncology nurse Laura Lee who is now chief executive of Maggie’s, to develop a new approach to cancer care.
The couple believed in patients being informed about their treatment and also the benefits of stress-reducing strategies, psychological support and the opportunity to meet other people in similar circumstances.
To mark the 10th birthday of Maggie’s Fife, a dinner dance sponsored by Smith Anderson Ltd will take place at Rothes Halls in Glenrothes November 18.
The evening will start with a drinks reception sponsored by Diageo at 7pm. It will be hosted by a celebrity guest and include music from That Swing Sensation. Tickets are £70 each or £700 for a table of 10.
Gareth Davies, who is being treated for prostate cancer, remembered the moment he was diagnosed.
“The doctor has just delivered the bad news about the prostate cancer. He has to be direct, as I have to make a decision soon about what treatment I want to choose.
“I am entering the unknown, and seemingly dangerous territory of disease, from which all kinds of fearful futures arise in my imagination out of the darkness of my ignorance about these things.
“On leaving the hospital, still in a daze, I notice the banner that points to Maggie’s Centre just across the way.
“The building is full of light and space that makes room for peace and domestic calm, so different from the busy clinical atmosphere that a hospital has to maintain.
“Professional staff and volunteers are there to greet me, who know what to do with those other non-medical concerns that have just arrived in my life. With warmth and patience they slow down the clock that is racing inside me, and make time for me.
“It is the turning of a negative into something positive.”
