TELEVISION presenter Kirstie Allsopp joined film director Richard Curtis to officially open a cancer support centre at Oxford’s Churchill Hospital yesterday.
She helped cut the ribbon at the purpose-built Maggie’s centre opposite the main entrance to the Headington cancer hospital.
The Patricia Thompson building replaces a portable building at the rear of the site which has been used since 2006.
The treehouse-style design provides more space to help sufferers, including psychological support, benefits advice and classes such as yoga.
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Miss Allsopp, best known for co-presenting Channel 4 property shows including Location, Location, Location, and who lost her mother Fiona Hindlip to breast cancer in January, aged 66, said: “It is amazing. It doesn’t feel like a medical building or a hospital.
“It is very hard with all the equipment of a hospital to have a feeling of warmth and individuality. As a patient you can lose your sense of yourself. I am very much a Maggie’s devotee, I believe passionately in what they are trying to achieve.”
The £3m centre was paid for by fundraising and is expected to attract 7,000 visitors a year.
From right, Maggie’s Chief Executive Laura Lee, Richard Curtis, Kirstie Allsopp, the Centre’s principal donor, Mike Thompson and Paul Mayhew-Archer
Mr Curtis – who directed Four Weddings and a Funeral and Love Actually – said the building was “beautiful”.
He added: “As the person who founded Comic Relief I am never surprised by the public’s generosity. If it is this pretty on a rainy day it will be gorgeous with natural light.”
They were joined by The Vicar of Dibley writer Paul Mayhew-Archer and Maggie’s chief executive Laura Lee.
She said: “To watch a centre come in to being is an incredible journey, one I have been privleleged to share with every Maggie’s Centre built so far. But nothing compares to seeing the centre filled with people benefiting from the support we offer.”
The building is named after the mother of principal funder Mike Thompson, CEO of nursery firm Childbase Partnerships, who died from the disease.
The hospital is run by Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust, but the centre is run by the charity, which has centres throughout the UK.
Trust chief nurse Catherine Stoddart said: “It’s fantastic to have this valuable service here on the Churchill Hospital site. We know that our patients will continue to benefit from the practical, emotional and social support provided at the Maggie’s Centre.”
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