A number of Maggie's Centres have opened
around the country
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A man who helped set up a network of cancer care centres has
become a CBE in the New Year's honours, 10 years after his wife died
from the disease.
Venture capitalist Derek Douglas lost his
37-year-old wife Sandra just before Christmas in 1995 following a
five-year battle with cancer.
Soon afterwards he agreed to chair the Maggie's
Centre charity and spent seven years spearheading its growth.
He helped recruit supporters like JK Rowling and
Kirsty Wark to raise funds.
Thousands of cancer patients and their families have
benefited from visiting the five Maggie's Centres, which offer
advice and support in a friendly, non-institutional environment.
A further seven centres are due to be built over the
next few years, including one in London.
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I don't think I could have given back to more people
in the community than through helping a cancer charity
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Dr Douglas, who devoted one day a week to Maggie's
before standing down as chairman in December 2003, said his work
with the charity was part of a "healing process" following
his wife's death.
The 52-year-old said: "It's always nice for
other people to recognise the things that you've done, particularly
in relation to Maggie's.
"Quite a few of my businesses have done quite
well but the ability to actually give something back to the
community is one of the things I was really glad I was able to do.
"Because one in three people get cancer, from
my own point of view I don't think I could have given back to more
people in the community than through helping a cancer charity."
Sandra Douglas was a friend of Maggie Keswick
Jencks, the founder of the Maggie's Centres.
Keswick, driven by her experience of drab, austere
hospital wards and waiting rooms, spent her final months drawing up
plans for a place where patients and their families could relax in a
friendly environment with beautiful gardens and bright spaces.
'Just atrocious'
The first Maggie's Centre opened its doors in the
grounds of Edinburgh's Western General Hospital in November 1996 and
was extended a few years later.
Dr Douglas, whose Midlothian-based Adam Smith
Limited specialises in launching early stage technology firms,
likened the opening of Maggie's Centres across the country to the
growth of businesses supplying high-demand services.
Recalling his own experience when he and Sandra
learned she had cancer - shortly after they returned to Scotland
from living in New Zealand in the late 1980s - he added: "It
was just atrocious.
"You were just taken into a room in an old
hospital, sitting on school-type chairs.
"You went in there and the consultant had seven
minutes to tell you it was cancer before they had to move on to
someone else - you were just sort of left there.
"You were numb and there was nothing to say
what it actually meant, what were the different treatments and the
possible side-effects, how this would affect you psychologically.
"All those sort of things that Maggie's now
offers were just not available."
