MoonWalk funds new cancer centre

Published on Saturday 5 January 2008 19:28

WEARING a fancy bra – and nothing else above the waist – is not just for show. A £2m cancer care centre is to be created in Glasgow with funds raised by the annual MoonWalk for charity.

Walk the Walk, the grant-making health body behind The MoonWalk Edinburgh – in which the walkers' traditional trademark is a bra – has united with Maggie's, the organisation offering care and support to those affected by cancer, to create a second centre at the city's Gartnavel Hospital.

In the tradition of Maggie's Centres, the new building will be designed by award-winning architect Rem Koolhaas, who has a string of iconic structures to his name around the world.

The centre will be built close to the new oncology department in Glasgow, The Beatson, and will help to provide support for thousands of patients each year.

The new centre is tangible evidence of the fundraising power of the MoonWalk, which will be held for the third time in Edinburgh this year, with 12,000 walkers expected to take part.

It will complement the work of the other Maggie's Centre in Glasgow, The Gatehouse, built five years ago. Last year The Gatehouse had 12,000 visits from cancer patients and there has been a 60% increase in visitor numbers over the last two years.

Nina Barough, chief executive and founder of Walk the Walk, said: "I'm delighted that Walk the Walk and Maggie's will be working together on this much-needed second centre in Glasgow.

"Glasgow city has the highest incidence of cancer of any local council area in Scotland, and with the increasing visitor numbers at The Gatehouse, a second centre is vital.

"Huge thanks should go to all those that have taken part in The MoonWalk Edinburgh. Without their fantastic support over the past two years and their future support, this grant would not be possible."

Jonathan Best, director of regional services for NHS Greater Glasgow, said: "We are delighted Walk the Walk has agreed to help fund the building of a new Maggie's Centre, so that vital emotional and psychological support can be easily accessible to the large number of patients that access our services."

Maggie's chief executive officer Laura Lee added: "Maggie's Gartnavel Centre will be very important for people living with cancer and their family and friends because of its accessibility to oncology services at The Beatson."

Patients have heaped praise on the current Maggie's Centre. Isobel Rutter said: "I have received so much support from Maggie's Gatehouse and know that having an additional centre at Gartnavel will mean even more opportunities for me, my family and others like us to get the emotional support we need to complement our physical treatment.

"Benefits advice, a cup of tea, a relaxation session or time with a psychologist are all available under one roof and it feels like a home from home, away from the bustle of the hospital corridor."

Internationally acclaimed designer Koolhaas is a modernist architect described as a visionary and philosopher in his interpretation of buildings and their sites.

The Dutch-born professor in practice of architecture and urban design at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University in the US, has designed buildings as different as the new Prada stores in Beverly Hills and New York, the Seattle Library and the Central China Television (CCTV) Headquarters building in Beijing.

Other Maggie's Centres, of which there are currently five in Scotland, have been designed by some of the world's leading architects such as Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid – a former Koolhaas protg – Richard Murphy, and Page and Park.

The vision of founder and cancer sufferer Maggie Keswick Jencks, the centres aim to provide a 'home from home' environment alongside major cancer treatment hospitals, where patients and families can regain a sense of control over their lives during the shock and stress of diagnosis and treatment.

The first centre opened at the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh in 1996, shortly after Maggie's death. Others have opened since in Dundee, Kirkcaldy and Inverness as well as Glasgow.

Walk the Walk has raised in excess of 35m for breast cancer causes, with The Edinburgh MoonWalk 2006 and 2007 raising nearly 4m so far.