Maggie's has been named as Cardiff Blues official charity for the 2016-17 season.
Maggie’s, which support 45,000 people newly diagnosed with cancer each year, will partner Wales’ Capital Region alongside #StayStrongForOws.
Each year in the UK, 300,000 people are diagnosed with cancer, which not only affects those with the disease but also their friends and family.
Maggie’s offers practical, emotional and social support for people with cancer, their families and friends. Maggie’s Centres are warm and welcoming places, where professional staff are on hand to help you find answers to your questions. Maggie’s Centres are places to meet people who understand what you are going through.
In 2011, the first Maggie’s centre in Wales was built in the grounds of Singleton Hospital in Swansea. The centre now receives 12,000 visitors per year.
Following that demand, Maggie’s South East Wales will be built at the new Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff.
It is expected that Maggie’s South East Wales will receive 20,000 visits a year and £4.5million is required to deliver the centre.
Cardiff Blues chief executive Richard Holland said: “Cancer is clearly something that affects everyone, with one in two people born after 1960 in the UK to be diagnosed during their lifetime.
“Whether it affects you personally or a loved one it changes your life significantly and Maggie’s is a fantastic charity which offers support and guidance.
“We are delighted to welcome Maggie’s as our official charity and it is all the more timely given the fundraising for a centre in Cardiff.”
The first Maggie’s Centre opened in Edinburgh in 1996, following the efforts of Maggie Keswick Jencks, who lived the disease for many years. There are now 20Maggie’s Centres at NHS cancer hospitals across the UK.
Sir Roger Jones, OBE, Chairman of Maggie’s South East Wales Fundraising Board said:
‘We are delighted to have the support of Cardiff Blues, to help bring Maggie’s to South East Wales’.
‘When I first walked through the door of Maggie’s Swansea, I saw that it was an oasis of excellence, an environment that soothed and calmed with caring and knowledgeable staff who have what the clinicians don’t have – time; time to help people, their families and friends through their cancer experience’.
‘We need more Maggie’s in Wales’
www.maggiescentres.org