‘I’m proud of my mother’s legacy to help fight cancer’

She was just 15 when Maggie Keswick Jencks died of breast cancer in 1995 – the year before the first centre to bear her name was opened in Edinburgh.

Miss Jencks said her mother would think the expansion of her vision, which now sees 15 centres open or in development, was “completely mind-blowing”.

The landscape architect, who designed the gardens of the new Maggie’s Centre at Gartnavel Hospital, in Glasgow, said: “It had a very humble beginning.

“My dad [architect Charles Jencks] and her came up with the idea of really just a room in a hospital, and it would just be a really nice meeting room because they would sit for hours waiting because that is how the system is.

“So they wanted a nice waiting room with a view, that’s not just got a soap opera playing on the television, because you are dealing with really serious questions.

“The last place you want to do that is in a windowless, stuffy room with Hello! magazine and the TV on in the background. That’s not really helpful.”

That first centre in Edinburgh, opened in 1996, went on to be a blueprint for other centres across Scotland and the rest of the UK.

The Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday has now joined up with the charity for our Christmas campaign to help raise funds so Maggie’s can continue to provide its unique support to a growing number of cancer patients and their families.

Miss Jencks said her mother’s philosophy when coming up with the idea for a cancer centre was that the environment was very important to people and affected them psychologically and physically. Interesting architecture and design are a key factor in all the centres now open.

“It reminds you how joyful and special the world is and gives you that energy that you need to tackle cancer,” she said.

“So the philosophy behind it is very much part of Maggie’s, and that is very much part of her idea, and landscape is a very important part of that.

“They have done studies that show that having a window in your hospital room can lead to lower stress levels and we know that stress can make you more sick.”

Although a teenager when her mother died, the 31-year-old has clear memories of their final times together. “She had been given two months to live and then she went into fighting mode,” she said.

Her mother went on to live for two years.

“That’s when she started to conceive of the Maggie’s Centres and I think the idea of developing them, growing them and nurturing them was a big part of those two years she was fighting.

“I was aged 13 to 15, so I was going through a lot of things myself, and I think she was very sick. So it was a different relationship to what most normal teenagers have.

“But there were also lots of normal things we did. I remember not long before she died we took bicycles along the beach in Los Angeles, and she managed to do that.

“It was a balance between her being sick and her living better than she’d ever lived. She was full of life, full of passion for doing the centres. She was very healthy, just eating very healthy food and doing lots of exercise and meditation.”

Miss Jencks said that when visiting any of the Maggie’s Centres, you could see how important they were to patients and their families.

“People often ask me if I’m proud. Obviously I am proud of Maggie’s because they have done so well, but not so much because of my mum. They have done so well because of all the people involved. They make it work. My mum had the idea, but it would be nothing without the people here.”

To donate visit: www.maggiescentres.org/scotsmanappeal