Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing, Nicola Sturgeon, joins architects, construction workers, NHS officials, and people affected by cancer for a sod cutting ceremony to mark construction work being underway on Maggie’s Gartnavel Centre.

Key supporters of Maggie’s gathered to mark this landmark development which will see Glasgow become the first city to have two Maggie’s Centres – greatly increasing the level of care and support on offer to people affected by cancer across the west coast of Scotland.

Construction workers from the assigned contractors, Dunne Group, wore specially designed pink hard hats to acknowledge the generous £2.7million funding awarded to the project from Walk the Walk Worldwide. Walk the Walk raised the funds through their annual Moonwalk Edinburgh event, which sees 10,000 people take part in a 26-mile walk around the capital in decorated pink bras.

Maggie’s Gartnavel is set to open in Autumn 2011 and will work in tandem with Maggie’s Glasgow (Western Infirmary) to provide emotional and practical support to people in the region living with cancer, plus to their friends and family.

Ms Sturgeon said a few words to mark this pivotal day for people with cancer in the region, before being presented with a gift by Maggie’s Centre Head, Gillian Hailstones – a copy of Charles Jencks’ The Architecture of Hope.

Health Secretary, Nicola Sturgeon, said: "Cancer is a top priority for the Scottish Government and Maggie's is an important partner for us. They play a vital role in helping support patients and their families both at the time of a cancer diagnosis and during and after treatment. Maggie's Centres give care in a way that's completely consistent with the Quality Strategy, which puts the patient at the heart of healthcare. Person-centred care is about responding to the needs of the individual and I know that's what Maggie's does. I'm sure the new Centre that will open at Gartnavel will be an ideal environment for this valuable work, allowing many more patients, families and carers to benefit."


Maggie’s Centre Head, Gillian Hailstones, said: “We are thrilled to have Nicola Sturgeon with us today to celebrate the building of a second Maggie’s Centre in Glasgow. There is a high incidence of cancer in the west of Scotland and Maggie’s Gartnavel will be a wonderful addition to current services. At Maggie’s, we give people the space, the time, the skills and the support to understand and manage their experience of cancer. I would like to thank Walk the Walk Worldwide for their generous funding of Maggie’s Gartnavel.”

Maggie’s Gartnavel has been designed by award winning architect Rem Koolhaas, OMA Architects, with Associate Architect for the Project, Richard Hollington, attending the ceremony today. Pritzker Prize winner Rem Koolhaas has designed a single-level building in the form of interlocking rooms surrounding an internal landscaped courtyard. The plan has been organised for the spaces to feel casual, almost carefree, allowing one to feel at ease and at home; part of an empathetic community of people. Maggie Keswick Jencks’ daughter, Lily Jencks, has designing the internal courtyard plantings and surrounding wooded glades areas in conjunction with the landscape architecture and urban design company, HarrisonStevens.

Group Managing Director of Dunne Group, Gordon Dunne, said: “We are very proud of our involvement on this very important project to build an intimate and supportive domestic centre which will have a positive and helpful impact on the people of Glasgow living with cancer.”

Nina Barough, Walk the Walk Worldwide Founder, said: “All of us at Walk the Walk are very excited to hear that the construction work on the Centre is really progressing and that Nicola Sturgeon was able to attend the sod cutting ceremony today and see for herself the impact that this second Maggie’s centre will have at Gartnaval. Myself and all our Walk the Walkers that have just taken part in the New York City Marathon will be on our way home with medals! So sadly cannot be there to share the celebration but we all send lots of good energy and wishes for this special day.

“As a grant making charity Walk the Walk have chosen to grant funds to help Maggie’s as we feel their pioneering programme of support is needed more than ever, as more people are diagnosed with cancer and are living longer with the disease. We also have a great ambition to help improve the cancer care facilities available in Glasgow and throughout Scotland. Registration for Moonwalk Edinburgh 2011 is now open, so sign up for not only a night to remember but a real opportunity for everybody to help make a difference for people with cancer.”

Charles Cutting, a Divisional Director of Keppie Design, who are the architects working on the project to implement the OMA design, said: “A Maggie’s Centre is a wonderful opportunity for an architectural practice to work on as there is the creative design process and innovative element of the building, as well as the knowledge of how important this building will be for people in the community.  We have been working on this project with Maggie's and OMA and it is exciting today to come together to celebrate the progress made and to see the design coming to fruition.”

To sign up for Walk the Walk Worldwide’s Moonwalk Edinburgh, which takes place in June 2011, please visit www.walkthewalk.org. For more info on Maggie’s Centres please visit www.maggiescentres.org.

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For more media information and photographer please contact Tricia Crosbie on 0141 341 5678 / 07769 145260.

Notes to the Editor:

• One of Maggie’s primary aims is to make it as easy as possible for people living with cancer to access their local Centre. When the Beatson Oncology Centre announced that it was moving from the Western Infirmary to a new site at Gartnavel hospital, it was natural for Maggie’s to investigate if there would be a site nearby.

• The original Maggie’s Glasgow Centre (Gatehouse), Dumbarton Road, opened in 2002 and it is now an established part of the community and will remain open and work in tandem with the new centre for as long as it is needed. Maggie’s Gartnavel and Maggie’s Glasgow will work alongside each other, serving the West of Scotland Cancer Network, which has a population of 2.5 million people.