Page 4 - Maggie's Yorkshire YP Special Report

YORKSHIRE POST THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 28 2017
CASE STUDY
A SPECIAL FEATURE FROM THE YORKSHIRE POST IN SUPPORT OF MAGGIE’S
Harriet Dow, who has been diagnosed with incurable cancer, with husband Robin, talks about the need for Maggie’s. PICTURE:JAMES HARDISTY
‘Maggie’s really helped us all’
“A er a really gruelling treatment in Leeds
I got in the car and cried all the way home because there was nowhere else for me to go. If there had been a Maggie’s Centre in Leeds I could have gone there, had someone to talk to and feel safe. You cannot put a price on that.”
These are the words of mother of one Harriet Dow who has incurable secondary breast cancer.
Harriet, from Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2001 aged just 24. She underwent treatment and was given the all clear. But in 2014 tests showed the cancer had spread and it cannot be cured.
She and husband Robin and other members of the family have raised thousands of pounds to bring a Maggie’s Centre to Yorkshire – the biggest county in Britain not to have one giving support, advice and somewhere for cancer patients, their family and friends to go to
in a non-clinical se ing. More than 30,000
Yorkshire people will be helped by the centre once it opens its doors early in 2019.
“The medical care I have gone to over the years has been second to none,” says Harriet who also writes a blog about her experience with cancer.
“But it isn’t until you visit a Maggie’s Centre that you realise what we are missing in Yorkshire. I am so excited that we will soon have one for all of Yorkshire in the grounds of St James’s Hospital. If there had been one when I was diagnosed it would have made all the difference to me and my family.”
But Maggie’s Centres are about a lot more than just offering a shoulder to cry on. They have medical experts on hand, and also people to give advice on practical ma ers such as benefits advice and eating well, managing hair loss and skin care during cancer treatment.
There is also access to a tried and tested programme of support. This includes emotional support – which might involve a one-to-one or group session with a clinical
psychologist, stress reduction and relaxation workshops, or art therapy and creative writing courses.
Social support comes from the people who work in and visit the centres and the supportive community around each famous Maggie’s Kitchen Table.
“The great thing with a Maggie’s Centre is that you can just walk in and there will be someone to talk to, or you can just sit and have a cup of tea by yourself and just have time to get yourself together before ge ing back on with your life,” says Harriet, who experienced first hand the kind of support a Maggie’s Centre can
If Yorkshire had a Maggie’s Centre, I could have gone there and had someone to talk to
offer when she visited the Swansea centre with her mum and brother.
“It was the first time that my mum had really confronted head on what was happening to me and she became quite upset,” recalls Harriet.
“Someone was there to support and help her and it really helped us all.”
As planning permission is granted for what will become an iconic building in Yorkshire, Harriet has a message.
“I think what people sometimes don’t realise is that Maggie’s isn’t funded by the NHS, it relies completely on voluntary donations.
“It is amazing that they have got the money to start building it, but it will need around
an extra £500,000 a year to run it – that’s around £2,500 a day,” says the mum from Knaresborough.
“Everybody knows somebody who’s had or has got cancer – no one is exempt from it. Cancer doesn’t discriminate and you never know when you might need a Maggie’s Centre.”
THE HISTORY
In May 1993, Maggie Keswick Jencks was told that her breast cancer had returned and was given two to three months to live.
Thanks to chemotherapy she lived for another 18 months. During that time, she and her husband Charles 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.
Maggie and Charles
believed you needed to be an informed participant in your treatment, with psychological support and the opportunity to meet other people in similar circumstances.
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.
THE FACTS
I 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.
I 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.
I Built alongside the hospital,
Maggie’s 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 others; or a calming space simply to sit quietly with a cup of tea.
I Maggie’s Centres received almost 220,000 visits from people with cancer and their family and friends, an increase of 10 per cent from 2015 (200,000 visits).
HOWYOUCANHELP
BY PHONE: 07557 970842
BY EMAIL: yorkshirefundraising@maggiescentres.org TEXT: either MYEP99 £5 or MYEP99 £10 to 70070
ONLINE:www.justgiving.com/campaigns/ charity/maggies/yorkshire
www.maggiescentres.org/yorkshire
BYPOST: Sendachequewiththereference
A Million for Maggie’s made payable to Maggie’s Centres and post to: c/o Martin Jenkins, The Yorkshire Post, No.1 Leeds, 26 Whitehall Road, Leeds LS12 1BE.