Maggie’s Centre Edinburgh celebrates Westwater Advocates’ contribution

Tomorrow, 7 January 2017, will be named “Westwater Advocates Day” at the Maggie’s Centre in Edinburgh.

Westwater Advocates has been supporting Maggie’s as its charity of the year since April 2016 and in that time it has raised almost £3,000 through fundraising activities, which is largely down to the efforts of stable member Alison Wild. Ms Wild hosted an open garden event and completed the Edinburgh Culture Crawl, a ten mile night time walk through the city taking in an eclectic mix of the city’s landmarks, an event organised by Maggie’s.

Maggie’s is an independent charity which works in partnership with the NHS. The very first Maggie’s Centre was opened in Edinburgh in 1996 and follows Maggie Keswick Jencks’s blueprint for cancer care, devised through her knowledge and personal experience of living with advanced cancer for two years. Maggie believed that people should not “lose the joy of living in the fear of dying” and the programme of support which Maggie inspired has continued to grow, with 19 centres at major NHS cancer hospitals in the UK, online and abroad. Each centre in the UK has been built at the invitation of the local NHS trust in the grounds of a specialist NHS cancer hospital.

In friendly, inviting spaces Maggie’s cancer support specialists, benefits advisors, nutritionists and psychologists offer practical, emotional and social support freely to anyone with any type of cancer. This programme of support has been proven to strengthen the physical and emotional wellbeing of people with cancer and their families and friends and the Department of Health has described the work of Maggie’s Centres as an example of best practice.

As well as raising funds Westwater Advocates hope that they have also raised awareness of the range of support that the professional staff at the Maggie’s Centres can offer to individuals and their families and friends from diagnosis, through treatment and beyond.

January 7 is an important day for Westwater Advocates, with this year marking the 26th anniversary of the stable’s formation.

Sheila Westwater, clerk, said: “We have been proud to support this fantastic charity over the last year. They have achieved so much and supported thousands of individuals over the last twenty years.”

If you would like to make a donation through Just Giving to this wonderful charity please click here.