Thank you for clicking on the link to make a donation to the Maggie’s Centre in Edinburgh. Here’s why a donation to this charity would be a brilliant gift to mark my (a-hem) 50th birthday.

After I was diagnosed with breast cancer in April 2022, I felt as though I’d been cast adrift. I found it impossible to make sense of the devastating news I’d received – that I had cancer, that it had spread and that it was treatable but incurable.

The first time we walked into the Maggie’s Centre at the Western General Hospital, it was to talk to someone about how Simon and I would break the news to Ella Rose, who was just eight-years-old at the time. As well as giving us some good advice on how to explain a cancer diagnosis to a child and answer the many questions Ella might have, the counsellor we saw also asked Simon and I how we were coping.

It was the first of many emotional visits to the Maggie’s Centre.

Since then, Simon, Ella and I have all received regular sessions with a counsellor. At times, these appointments have been last-minute and in response to various emotional crises. Our cries for help have always been met with friendly calm, good advice and given me a better understanding. Often just being told that what I’m feeling is normal has been invaluable.

Sometimes the Maggie’s Centre has just been a place to go and have a good cry.

In addition to counselling, the charity has also organised for me to attend a whole host of sessions to help me cope better with my cancer diagnosis and its consequences. I’ve attended sessions on what to expect from chemotherapy and how to cope if I lost my hair. Maggie’s also introduced me to an organisation who could advise on skincare and make-up during chemotherapy – importantly how to draw on eyebrows if I needed to!

More recently, Maggie’s directed us towards financial advice. I’ve also been enrolled on a course on how to move forward now my chemo, surgery and radiotherapy treatments are finished.

Without all this support, life during the last year, which has felt unbearable at times, would have been so much more difficult.

I’m approaching my 50th birthday with the amazing news that I’ve had a “complete response to treatment”. The docs say this means that I’m “probably” cancer free. This incredible news is thanks to research, modern medicine and the skills of the many medical teams who have looked after me over the last year. But know I’m only able to party with you all and celebrate thanks to my mental health being in good shape, and that’s very much down to the support of those at the Maggie’s Centre.

So, if you would like to buy me a birthday present, then please instead consider giving a donation to Edinburgh’s Maggie’s Centre, knowing that the support and kindness Simon, Ella and I have received from the staff and volunteers at this charity has been a precious gift to us as a family. The services we received from Maggie’s were given to us without charge, without question and without much of a wait. To be able to give something back would mean the world to us.

With heartfelt thanks and much love.

See you at the paaaarrrrttty!!!

Linda x