The Queen returned to one of her most cherished patronages on
Wednesday as she visited Maggie’s Cheltenham to mark the charity’s
30th anniversary – and reflected on the legacy of a woman whose
vision transformed cancer care across Britain.
Camilla, who has served as President of Maggie’s since 2008, was
welcomed to the Gloucestershire centre she officially opened 16
years ago, joining staff, volunteers and supporters to celebrate
three decades of the charity’s work supporting people living with
cancer.
Speaking during the visit, the Queen described Maggie’s as “a
remarkable charity”, and said it was “a huge pleasure” to be back
at Cheltenham, a centre she said held particular personal
significance.
Founded in 1995, Maggie’s offers free practical, emotional and
psychological support to people affected by cancer. Its centres –
now numbering 27 across the UK – are located alongside NHS
hospitals but are deliberately designed to feel non-clinical,
combining calm architecture, light-filled spaces and communal
kitchens where visitors can talk, reflect or simply sit quietly
with a cup of tea.
The charity was the brainchild of Maggie Keswick Jencks, who was
diagnosed with advanced cancer in 1988 at the age of 47.
Dissatisfied with the impersonal nature of hospital care, she
believed passionately that people facing cancer needed more than
medical treatment alone: they needed dignity, beauty, information
and human connection.
During her speech, the Queen recalled first meeting Maggie
decades earlier in London’s Swinging Sixties, when she ran the
fashionable AnnaCat boutique in Chelsea.
“I remember her as warm, funny and generous,” Camilla said –
qualities she noted remained evident in the way Maggie confronted
her diagnosis.
The Queen said: “Maggie was convinced that people living with
cancer crave a beautiful, comforting environment as they face the
unknown; a place where they needn’t pretend to be fine; where they
can receive expert support, sympathy and a cup of tea – and where
laughter can come as naturally as tears, because sometimes that’s
what’s wanted.”
Maggie died in 1995, but before her death worked with her
husband, the architectural theorist Charles Jencks, to create a
blueprint for the first Maggie’s Centre in Edinburgh. That
pioneering model – a welcoming domestic space rather than a
hospital ward – has since shaped every centre that followed.
The Queen described her own first visit to a Maggie’s Centre, in
Edinburgh in 2008, admitting she had approached the Western General
Hospital “slightly nervous”, expecting a formal clinical
environment.
“Instead,” she said, “I was surprised and delighted to find a
bright, peaceful place, with inspiring people full of stories about
the difference that Maggie’s had made to them and their
families.”
Shortly afterwards, Dame Laura Lee, the charity’s former chief
executive, asked Camilla to become President – a role she accepted,
she said, “with alacrity”.
“Now, 18 years and 27 centres on,” the Queen added, “I cannot
help but look around and reflect how proud Maggie would be to see
her incredible legacy.”
Throughout her presidency, Camilla has been a constant advocate
for the charity, making regular visits to centres, championing its
approach to holistic cancer care and maintaining close ties with
its leadership and founding family.
In her remarks, she paid tribute to Maggie’s children, Lily and
John, for continuing their mother’s work, and praised Dame Laura
Lee – who led the organisation for more than two decades – as “a
powerhouse if ever there was one”.
She also thanked the charity’s staff, supporters and volunteers
for ensuring that those who walk through Maggie’s doors find what
their founder once described as “the joy of living”.
