We'll be taking steps to say thank-you to centre

Published on Wednesday 26 August 2009 09:44

THEY were brought together in tragic circumstances but for very different reasons.

Dolina Johnson and Yvonne Trench both had their lives touched by cancer – and both came to rely on a city-based organisation in their hour of need.

Now as a thank-you to the support the Maggie's Centre gave them, Mrs Johnson and Mrs Trench are drumming up support for an event to raise cash for the valuable resource.

The Life Walk will take place on 12 September and organisers are hopeful of hundreds of participants signing up to the ten-mile event. The two women want people to show their support for the centre, based at the Western General, which gave them so much help.

Mrs Johnson, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007, needed help not just to cope herself with the devastating news, but also with telling her husband and children.

She said: "I was across at the hospital and just popped in to have a chat with them. Straight away I got a really warm feeling from the people there and the place.

"I had just been diagnosed and was in for another scan. It was the time I was most in need of the support they gave.

"How to approach my family was the toughest thing for me, but again they helped break it down and make it easier.

"It was a place where you could show your emotions and fears, because you don't always want to do that with your family around, or let them know the whole truth about how you are feeling."

The IT support worker, 43, who lives in Duddingston, has since had the all-clear from cancer, but has far from severed her links with Maggie's.

"I've still been every month to the Young Women's Support Group. There are all kinds of people there who are at different stages of their treatment and it really helps to talk things over," she said.

Mrs Trench lost her husband, Bob, to pancreatic cancer at the age of 48.

The Oxgangs woman, who works at the police headquarters at Fettes, needed the emotional support of the centre as her husband battled and then ultimately succumbed to the illness.

She said: "It was very sad when my husband was diagnosed because it was terminal and we knew there was no hope other than to get a bit more time through chemotherapy.

"It was extremely sad and I just cried all the time. Eventually my husband said 'look, you're no use to me if you're crying all the time', so I went across to the centre and instantly saw how warm and peaceful it was. I could just go in there and cry for an hour and a half if I wanted, so I could be stronger around my husband."

Bob passed away last year, but Mrs Trench still makes use of the centre. "When I go in the first thing I do is put the kettle on, it's that kind of place," she said.

"The walk is a fantastic event for a great cause."

The walk will leave from Holyrood Park, working round various city centre sights, including the Maggie's Centre, before returning to the park. To sign up, visit www.maggiescentres.org/lifewalks or phone [phone].