17/02/2026
Mark and Ruth Jardine were delighted to be invited by the First Minister of Scotland John Swinney to his home, Bute House in Edinburgh, to mark 30 years of Maggie’s Cancer Care in Scotland.
Mark has campaigned to bring a Maggie’s Cancer Care Centre to Dumfries and Galloway for over 15 years and that dream will soon become reality.
The Dumfries and Galloway region sees approximately 1,200 new cancer diagnoses every year and the planned support centre will be built in the grounds of DGRI. It will provide support sessions with cancer support specialists and psychologists and benefits advisors for people with cancer, as well as family and friends, at every stage of diagnosis, treatment and beyond.
Although the centre will be constructed in Dumfries, Maggie’s are supportive of an approach serving the entire region and an openness to working with third sector organisations who provide support for illnesses other than cancer.
It is poignant that a Maggie’s Centre will be built in Dumfries, as the founder Maggie Keswick Jencks, was from Holywood on the outskirts of the town.
When she was 47, Maggie was diagnosed with breast cancer and five years later, in May 1993, she was told that it had returned. Maggie and her husband, Charles Jencks, a renowned cultural theorist, landscape designer, and architectural historian, discussed the need for somewhere 'better' for people with cancer to go, outside of but near to hospitals. Together they designed the blueprint for the centres and the first Maggie's opened in Edinburgh in 1996.
We will keep you updated on how you can help and support the new Dumfries Maggie’s.
