Family Affairs and other matters

I am on the committee for a fashion show a girlfriend of mine is putting on in support of “Maggie’s” in February this year. Things are hotting up – she’s got Rupert Everett to do the compering.  I am very excited about that.  We’re looking at auction prizes.  Need “experiences” mostly.  Any ideas most welcome.

FYI, the money raised is going to a very good cause.  Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centres is a charity that provides support, free of charge, for people who have been diagnosed with any type of cancer. The support is also for their families, their friends and their carers.  Each individual person with cancer has to find their own way through the difficult path of their illness, but they all need information and reliable guidance.

Maggie Keswick Jencks (who was also brought up in Hong Kong) founded the charity with her husband after being diagnosed with breast cancer when she was forty-seven. It was through her experience of living with cancer that she began to recognise that taking an active role in her own treatment, moving from passive victim to active participant was the single most important step in dealing with her illness. She held a profound belief that architecture and the environment could deeply affect how you feel. She also became aware that having been diagnosed, there was no one place or person to turn to to get the answers she felt she needed.

I posted some photos last year when I went to see Maggie’s London Centre which was designed by Sir Richard Rogers and is situated in the grounds of The Charing Cross Hospital in Hammersmith – but I’m going to do so again, in case you missed them the first time. The building is truly amazing – a calm and tranquil space with lush green foliage both inside and out – a real haven. It recently won the RIBA London building of the year award AND the prestigious Stirling Prize.

The kitchen is the heart of the centre, giving it a very homely feel with lots of people sitting around a large table drinking tea and eating cakes and chatting and laughing:-

Once there the support you can receive ranges from one-to-one psychological support, weekly support groups, nutrition courses, benefits and welfare support, social and online support and relaxation and stress management.

All Maggie’s Centres in the UK are built adjacent to major cancer treatment hospitals but operate independently of the NHS. Their vision is to open centres next to every NHS Cancer hospital around the country: 5 are in progress in Oxford (this one is being built like a treehouse with wood made by local boatbuilders), Newcastle, South West Wales, Cheltenham and Nottingham. Internationally plans are in place for further centres in Hong Kong, Barcelona and Denmark.

My friend will show her 2010 Spring/Summer Collection and is aiming to raise in excess of £100,000!!

What a difference that will make.