AFTER losing her own mother to breast cancer in January, TV presenter Kirstie Allsopp knows how devastating the disease can be.
On Monday, she and film director Richard Curtis will officially open a new £3m cancer support centre in Oxford.
The Maggie’s Centre at Headington’s Churchill Hospital offers practical and emotional support to 7,000 annual visitors.
The new building was completed in July.
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The celebrities will cut the ribbon on the Patricia Thompson building, named for the mother of its principal funder Mike Thompson.
Kirstie Allsopp
Miss Allsopp, the co-presenter of Channel 4’s Location, Location, Location property programme, said she was proud to be asked.
Her mother Fiona Hindlip passed from the disease in January. Miss Allsopp said: “Cancer is sadly very familiar to my family, I was 17 when my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer.
“After seeing her journey with the illness I realised the importance of having the right support to complement medical treatment, something she believed strongly in.
“Maggie’s programme of support provides this for people with cancer and their centres are warm places where you can find answers to questions and meet people who understand what you are going through.”
Film director Richard Curtis
She and Oxford University graduate Mr Curtis, the brains behind a string of hit TV series and films including Notting Hill and Love Actually, will be joined by Abingdon script writer Paul Mayhew-Archer, who worked on The Vicar of Dibley with Mr Curtis, for the grand opening.
The centre has four consulting rooms, kitchen and toilets. It has five volunteers and five paid members of staff.
The new centre has been offering a full programme of support since early July with psychologists, a nutritional adviser and cancer support advisers alongside support groups.
It replaces an existing Maggie’s centre housed in a portable building in a hard-to-reach part of the hospital site.
Manager Claire Marriott said: “Our centre provides a much-needed programme of support to people with cancer and their family and friends across Oxfordshire.
Centre manager Claire Marriott and benefits adviser Atif Kaudri inside the new building
“For the last eight years we offered support from our small interim centre and with the increased space and facilities we now have the ability to help more people.”
The centre has a “treehouse” design, conceived by architects Wilkinson Eyre, and the guests will plant a tree in the grounds.
Work started in March last year and has been funded by individual donations and fundraising.
The first Maggie’s Centre opened in Edinburgh in 1996 and the new Oxford centre is the 18th to be opened in 18 years.
Charity chief executive Laura Lee and Mr Thompson will also be at the official opening.
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