Founder's daughter takes design role for hometown Maggie's centre

The daughter of the founder of the Maggie's cancer care charity is to be part of the design team behind plans for a new centre in her mother's home town.

Lily Jencks said it was "very exciting and very moving" to be involved in the project to construct the facility in the grounds of Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary.

Her studio will work with Roz Barr Architects on the scheme which was given the green light in August last year.

Maggie's chief executive Dame Laura Lee said it was "wonderful" to have Jencks involved to continue the legacy of her mother Maggie Keswick Jencks.

The announcement of the design collaboration is the latest step forward in plans which have taken years to reach this stage.

There are already 27 centres across the UK and a growing international network but none in Dumfries and Galloway.

Keswick Jencks - a writer, gardener and designer from Holywood near Dumfries - was diagnosed with breast cancer aged 47 and five years later, in May 1993, was told it had returned.

Along with her husband, renowned landscape designer and architectural historian, Charles Jencks, they recognised a need for somewhere for people with cancer to go for information and support, outside of but close to hospitals.

Together they designed the blueprint for the centres and the first one opened in Edinburgh in 1996 - a year after her death.

Their daughter has already designed the gardens for Maggie's centres in Glasgow and Hong Kong but said the south of Scotland project was a special one.

"It is so fantastic to be able to bring it to the community in Dumfries," she said.

"We know so many people there and to be able to give back to that community is very exciting and very moving for us as a family."

She said she hoped the facility could play an important role for local people facing cancer.

"Maggie's Centres have become part of - we hope - everyone's cancer journey in the UK and really being able to complement the care that is provided in hospital," she said.

"It is really moving when I go to visit the centres in Glasgow and Edinburgh which are really well used and see what a huge difference they make for patients and their families.

"They are used in so many different ways - sometimes for the particular care that Maggie's gives - the financial advice, the psychological care and group therapies and meeting people.

"But also just a place to come and decompress, share the load - or not share the load, come and sit and curl up in a corner and look out the window and have a moment."

The timeline for opening the centre has not yet been fixed.

"I hope we will be able to go in for planning at the end of this year," she added.

"So it will be a couple of years after that - it depends on fundraising - there are many things that need to fall into place before we know that really."

Design partner Roz Barr said she was "incredibly honoured" to be working on the Dumfries and Galloway Centre.

"To have Lily's family connection with the region, and in particular to her mum's extraordinary legacy, is very poignant," she said.

"I know it will be a pleasure to work together, and I know we will create a thoughtful and beautiful design.

"We are excited to commence this project and build a special space for the people of Dumfries and Galloway living with cancer to be welcomed, decompress and find the crucial psychological and practical care Maggie's offers."