Maggie's

Maggie's
Founded1995; 29 years ago (1995)
FounderMaggie Keswick Jencks
Charles Jencks
TypeCharitable organisation
Registration no.SC024414
FocusCancer care
Area served
United Kingdom
Hong Kong
Tokyo
Barcelona Nederland
Key people
Queen Camilla
(President)
Dame Laura Lee
(Chief Executive)
Websitemaggies.org

Maggie's centres are a network of drop-in centres across the United Kingdom and abroad that aim to help anyone who has been affected by cancer.

They are intended as welcoming and caring environments that provide support, information and practical advice to people dealing with a cancer diagnosis. They also offer wellbeing sessions and workshops to complement conventional cancer therapy.

The Maggie's centres in the United Kingdom are located near, but are detached from, existing NHS hospitals.

Maggie's was founded by and named after the late Maggie Keswick Jencks, who died of cancer in 1995. Like her husband, architectural writer and critic Charles Jencks, she believed in the ability of buildings to uplift people.

In 2016, Maggie's merged with Cancerkin, a charity in the United Kingdom which offers support to breast cancer patients. Cancerkin is based at the Royal Free Hospital in North London and was founded in 1987.[1]


The Scottish registered charity (registration number SC024414) that promotes, builds and runs the centres is formally named the Maggie Keswick Jencks Cancer Caring Trust, but refers to itself simply as Maggie's.

The buildings that house the centres have been designed by leading architects, including Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid and Richard Rogers.[2]

Patrons of the charity include Frank Gehry, Janet Ellis, Norman Foster, Kirsty Wark, and Sarah Brown, wife of former British prime minister Gordon Brown. The charity's chief executive is Dame Laura Lee, who was founder Maggie's cancer nurse.[3] The president of the charity is Queen Camilla.[4]

Statue of Maggie Jencks at Maggie's Centre in Edinburgh
  1. ^ "Cancerkin and Maggie's merge". Royal Free London.
  2. ^ See Charles Jencks and Edwin Heathcote, The Architecture of Hope: Maggie's Cancer Caring Centres, London, Frances Lincoln, 2010. ISBN 978-0-7112-2597-8
  3. ^ "Midweek". BBC. 16 March 2011. Retrieved 16 March 2011.
  4. ^ "HRH The Duchess of Cornwall became President of Maggie's in November 2008". Retrieved 12 October 2021.