'Maggie's is a safe place' - Gartnavel cancer centre in Glasgow marks 10th anniversary

“It’s a mystery,” he laughs.

“But I did it, because without Maggie’s – well, this would have been an entirely different experience.”

Lee is 47, and last September he was told he had stage four anaplastic thyroid cancer - an aggressive form of the disease with an average life expectancy of four months.

“I had a lump on my neck, and no-one was that worried about it – a biopsy had proved inconclusive, and the doctors didn’t think it was anything to worry about,” he explains.

“My options were to leave it, or have another biopsy, or have it removed. I decided on the surgery and even after the first operation, everything seemed fine.

“Then, three weeks later, the results came back, and – that was that really.”

Given six months ‘at best’, Lee – who lives in Drymen with wife Gemma and daughters Izzy, four and one-year-old Erin, found himself in a state of shock, scared he might not live to see his baby daughter’s first birthday.

“And if I made that, it was unlikely I’d be there for her Erin’s fourth in the March, my wife’s 40th in August ….”

He pauses.

“Within days of the diagnosis I went to Maggie’s Gartnavel and the support I had there was fantastic. It was lifesaving, in fact.”

It is 10 years since Maggie’s Gartnavel opened its doors.

The charity helps people take back control when cancer turns life upside down, providing free, professional support for anything from treatment side effects to money worries.

The charity was the vision of Maggie Kewswick Jencks, who had breast cancer.

She drew up the blueprints for the original centre in Edinburgh in the months running up to her death in 1995. Maggie’s oncology nurse Laura Lee, now chief executive of the charity, worked with Maggie’s husband, renowned architect Charles Jencks, to ensure her friend’s vision became a reality. There are now more than 30 Maggie’s Centres either built or in development around the UK and abroad.

Laura Lee (Image: Maggie's Glasgow)

Glasgow Evening Times readers raised an incredible £1.2million to build Glasgow’s first Maggie’s Centre at The Gatehouse on Dumbarton Road beside the now demolished Western Infirmary.

We launched our campaign in March 2001, with the target of raising £500,000.

By Christmas that same year, that total had been passed, and by the time the centre opened its doors in 2002, more than £1.2m had been banked.

It moved to Gartnavel in 2011.

At the official opening of Maggie’s Gartnavel, around 180 guests enjoyed a sneak preview of the £3m building which is located close to the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre.

Kirsty Wark, a long-time supporter of the cancer caring charity, performed the official opening ceremony with Laura and Nina Barough, founder of Walk the Walk which helped to fund the new centre.

High-profile guests included Rem Koolhaas, the architect who designed the centre; Lily and Charles Jencks, the daughter and husband of founder Maggie; and actor Libby McArthur.

Benefits Adviser Carol Scott has worked in both The Gatehouse and Gartnavel, and when she retires aged 70 next year, she will have been with the charity for almost 17 years.

Carol Scott

“When someone comes in to Maggie’s after a diagnosis of cancer, you can almost see their shoulders drop,” she says.

“It’s a chilled space - it’s the atmosphere, the feel of the place. It’s completely different from a hospital.”

Carol, who lives in the west end, joined the charity after working in welfare support at Rutherglen Health Centre.

“I liked the sound of Maggie’s approach,” she smiles.

“They were new to the city when they first came to The Gatehouse, and it was a whole new way of thinking about cancer.

“But Glaswegians are open to new things. And they warmly welcomed Maggie’s to the city.”

Lee Crompton, who took part in the charity’s Run 50 Miles challenge in January, raising £5500 in the process, is now 12 months down the line from that devastating diagnosis.

READ MORE: Idle chat leads to epic 350-mile cycle for Glasgow man

“The doctors call it miraculous,” he says. “They don’t know why I’m still here, but I am.

“This week has been a bit of a rollercoaster, as I lost my job - I’m a quantity surveyor - on Friday.”

He says: “I just laughed to be honest.

“In the grand scheme of things - I don’t care. I also do screenwriting and I’ve been working on a comedy pilot, so perhaps there is a silver lining and this will allow me to spend more time on that - who knows?

“And who would have thought, this time last year, that come September 2021 I’d be talking about new horizons, new jobs and a new beginning?”

Lee agrees that Maggie’s is a place like no other.

“The support they give you is practical – things like financial stuff, and nutrition – but also emotional,” he explains. “Mainly, you are speaking to people who understand, who have been there, done that, got the t-shirt.

“In a difficult time, when you’ve seen inside Pandora’s Box, when you are at your lowest ebb, Maggie’s is a safe place. “

He adds: “They have your back and that bit of reassurance they give you – well, you can’t buy that. It is priceless.”