Summarised from a story by Magnus Linklater, entitled 'Where the joy of living eases the fear of dying', in The Times (Mar 11th '97).
A new centre in Edinburgh, with information and therapeutic facilities designed on an accessible, human scale, aims to help patients who have received a cancer diagnosis to continue to lead active lives as they adjust to a painful life change. The centre was conceived and designed by Maggie Keswick, herself a cancer patient who has since died. Its aim is to counteract the way in which traditional treatments and facilities have often ended up reinforcing the helplessness and isolation felt by many patients on learning they have cancer.
Keswick's experience when told that her illness was probably terminal, in common with many others, was to find herself left waiting in a hospital corridor, offered precious little advice or information. Such inadequate care, she felt, not only fails to support the patient, but can actually make things worse: "A diagnosis of cancer hits you like a punch in the stomach," she wrote, "but fear, compounded by ignorance and false knowledge, is a paralysing attack in its own right. The myth of cancer kills as surely as the tumours."
The Centre, called Maggie's Centre in her memory, has been established in an attractively-converted stables in the grounds of Western General Hospital. With a human-scale kitchen, bathroom and sitting room, and lots of natural light from the surrounding gardens, it is designed to contrast with the intimidating anonymity of most hospital environments. A small library and an Internet terminal can be used by patients to find out about their illness, and how to cope with it, for themselves. There are also staff on hand who can offer advice, counselling and therapy.
The Centre embodies Keswick's belief that "involvement in one's own treatment is an empowering weapon" in the battle against cancer, and that sustaining contact and involvement with normal life is the strongest defence against what threatens it. Even for patients very close to death, Keswick felt, it was possible to continue actively enjoying life. "What matters," said Keswick, "is not to lose the joy of living in the fear of dying."
Maggie's Centre, The Stables, Western General Hospital, Drewe Road, Edinburgh EH4 2XU (tel 0131 537 3131; fax 0131 537 3130; e-mail:<maggie's.centre@ed.ac.uk>).
This webpage forms part of the Global Ideas Bank (www.globalideasbank.org).
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