When cancer nurse Laura Lee started caring for a new patient one day back in 1993, she had no idea it would change her life – and many others – forever.
Because that patient – Maggie Keswick Jencks – had the idea of building a small centre next to the Edinburgh hospital where she was being treated to help others come to terms with their diagnosis.
Laura – then in her early 20s – became convinced of its need, wholeheartedly jumping on board and becoming the first employee and CEO of the charity they would call Maggie’s*.
Pictured:Dame Laura Lee, chief executive of Maggie’s Cancer Care Centres. (Credit: Nick Edwards)
Dame Laura Lee, DBE, is a cancer nurse turned CEO of Maggie’s, which runs a large and growing network of centres to help support cancer patients in calm, positive and uplifting environments
Its aim? To help prevent patients ‘losing the joy of living in the fear of dying’.
And over the past three decades, Laura, 57, has overseen its growth from that one centre to 24 centres across the country, which are visited 340,000 times a year by people in need of support. And there are plans for even more.
Sadly, Maggie died before seeing her dream come true. She lost her fight against breast cancer in 1995 – aged just 53 – shortly before ground was broken for the very first Maggie’s at Edinburgh’s Western General Hospital.
‘An amazing amount of money’: Dame Laura has worked with People’s Postcode Lottery for two decades, putting their £23m donations to use in expanding the growing Maggie’s network (Credit: Nick Edwards)
But she’s left an astonishing legacy, thanks to Laura’s visionary genius and YOUR generosity. Because for the past 20 years, the charity has received an incredible £23 million from the players of People’s Postcode Lottery.
And it’s set to continue.
‘It’s an amazing amount of money,’ says Laura, who was made a Dame in 2019. ‘People’s Postcode Lottery has been an extraordinary partner for Maggie’s.
‘We became one of their first charities – they were starting in Scotland in their Edinburgh office and we were in Edinburgh too. What’s been brilliant is their growth has helped us grow.
‘And what’s unusual is they’ve committed to being a long-term partner – this allows us to plan.
‘It’s brilliant because we get to celebrate the players who are winning and benefit from them and they get to help people with cancer.’
Dame Laura is pictured at the Maggie’s West London centre, at Charing Cross Hospital (Credit: Nick Edwards)
Maggie Keswick Jencks was first diagnosed with breast cancer when she was 47 and treated successfully. But five years later it returned, and she was given the devastating news that she had just a few months to live in May 1993.
Maggie and her husband Charles were then shuffled into a windowless corridor to process the news surrounded by other patients. They knew they deserved better, and the idea for Maggie’s was born.
The concept was to give people the help and support they needed, or just somewhere pleasant to go and sit quietly, by building beautiful walk-in centres close to oncology units.
‘You can come in without a referral and you will have time with a cancer support specialist,’ says Laura. ‘The service is tailormade to the individual – you can discuss what’s worrying you and let us help you work through that.
‘And if you’d benefit from something more specific, such as a psychologist or benefits advisor, we will arrange for that.’
There are 60 oncology units in Britain, and Laura is determined each should have their own Maggie’s centre. Six are currently in development.
Maggie’s Centres around the UK
Initially the plan was just to build one in Edinburgh.
‘But then doctors in Glasgow and Dundee asked if they could have an equivalent, and we grew organically,’ says Laura.
Many have been designed by world-famous architects such as Norman Foster (The Gherkin) and Richard Rogers (the Lloyds building) who were friends of Maggie and her American architect husband. Top architects are queuing up to design the next one.
Both Maggie and Laura firmly believed and believe in the effect our environment has on us, so the centres are all beautiful, relaxing places that lift the spirits.
Thus, when Frank Gehry (Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao) designed Maggie’s Dundee he modelled it on a traditional Scottish ‘butt n’ ben’ cottage-style dwelling to offer a sense of calm and sanctuary.
Calm and welcoming sanctuary: Maggie’s Dundee was designed by legendary architect Frank Gehry to look like a traditional Scottish ‘butt n’ ben’ cottage-style dwelling (Credit: Raf Makda 2023)
Maggie’s Yorkshire was built in 2019 and was designed by Heatherwick Studio to be ‘soulful and welcoming’ and to inspire visitors with hope and perseverance (Credit: Hufton + Crow)
And the Glasgow centre was surrounded by wooded glades created by Maggie’s own daughter Lily Jencks to ‘give you a bit of life and power’.
Each may look very different, but the ethos and atmosphere is the same. ‘We want people to feel more in control, more hopeful, and when they’re feeling helpless because of the diagnosis, Maggie’s helps them feel less alone by meeting others going through it,’ says Laura.
So what would the ‘warm, open’ woman the charity is named after think about her astonishing legacy?
‘She’d be so delighted and maybe a bit bemused,’ smiles Laura. ‘She’d be stunned at how generous people have been, how committed the workforce are and how passionate people are about quality of the environment.’
Passion that’s been made possible by the players of People’s Postcode Lottery**.
Back in 2008, when Maggie’s first received funding, there were five centres, but in the intervening 15 years a further 19 have been opened and Maggie’s has been visited by over 2 million people in need of support.
‘You can see the trajectory of our growth has escalated quite markedly,’ says Laura. ‘Ongoing unrestricted, funding from players has fuelled our growth, and provided that solid foundation of financial security that has enabled us to be ambitious with our plans to be at every major cancer centre in the country.’
‘Maggie’s saved my life’
Paul Scanlon, 53
When Paul Scanlon was diagnosed with bowel cancer and told an operation would leave him needing a colostomy bag, he decided not to have surgery.
But he soon became depressed.
Then he visited his local Maggie’s in Cardiff and met clinical psychologist Sarah.
‘When I went to see Sarah, she explained how I would be able to adapt to life and that it would give me a lot of time to live life with my family,’ says the 53-year-old, who immediately went home and told his wife and two daughters he was having the life-saving op.
‘I really believe that Sarah and Maggie’s saved my life,’ says Paul.
‘The building is really peaceful, it has an open plan feel with a lovely big table in it where you can just sit and talk – or not, however you feel, or you can go and sit at the kitchen table or out in the garden with a cuppa and watch the birds in the woodlands.
‘It’s a really nice peaceful, tranquil place that helps me feel more relaxed.’
‘I tell my wife I love her every day’
After three cancer diagnoses in ten years, Bill Puffett was in need of a little luck. And fortune finally smiled on him in December last year when he won £60,000 on People’s Postcode Lottery.
‘They called and said “Congratulations, you’re a winner” but they wouldn’t tell me how much I’d won because they wanted to surprise me,’ says the 81-year-old. ‘All sorts of things went through my mind – had I won thousands?’
A few days later, the team arrived at his house in Bishopstone, Wiltshire, with a big cheque in an envelope.
Bill Puffett, 81, and wife Linda, 66, won £60,000 with People’s Postcode Lottery
‘They asked me to pull it out and I saw a six – ‘ohh, I’ve won £600′, I thought,’ says the great granddad. ‘Then I saw a nought, then a comma then all these zeros.
‘I said ‘holy bloody moly’ and dug my wife Linda in the ribs!’
Even though he’s beaten skin cancer, prostate cancer and bowel cancer – the latest in 2020 – in the past ten years, everything Bill does is for Linda, a former senior care assistant and his wife of 37 years. ‘I tell her I love her every day,’ he says.
And he’s spending much of the win on doing up their bungalow for her.
He’s also treated his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren to meals out and whisked Linda, 66, off on holiday to Sidmouth in Devon too.
‘I want her to sit back and relax,’ he says. ‘I promised to look after her when I married her and that’s what I want her to do. I hope I’ve done her proud.’
How you can help People’s Postcode Lottery keep supporting charities such as Maggie’s
Taking part in People’s Postcode Lottery gives you the chance to share £1million with your neighbours – while also raising vital funds for charities.
For a £12 a month† subscription you will be entered into every draw, with prizes announced every day.
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The prospect of winning big on a regular basis is, naturally, a huge attraction. But signing up won’t just benefit you.
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Players have raised more than £1billion so far for charities.
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*Maggie’s is a registered Scottish charity (SC024414). Funding awarded by Postcode Care Trust, a registered Scottish charity (SC042667)
**£12 to be entered into all draws, paid monthly in advance. The estimated max possible ticket prize from the October millions and Millionaire Street prize draws is £388,875. Winning postcodes for October’s draws announced daily from 7th October – 3rd November 2023. T&Cs apply. People’s Postcode Lottery manages lotteries for 20 charities, each has one draw a month and receives a minimum of 33% from ticket sales. To find out draw dates, which good cause promotes and benefits from each draw, and the relevant prizes, see Prize Draw Calendar at www.postcodelottery.co.uk/good-causes/draw-calendar. Not available in NI. Conditions apply. Postcode Lottery Limited is incorporated in England and Wales and is licensed and regulated by the Gambling Commission under licence numbers 000-000829-R-102511 and 000-000829-R-102513. Registered office: Postcode Lottery Limited, 2nd Floor, 31 Chertsey Street, Guildford, Surrey, GU1 4HD. Company reg. no. 04862732. VAT reg. no848 3165 07. Trading address: 28 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh, EH2 4ET. © 2023 Postcode Lottery Ltd.