‘To not lose the joy of living in the fear of dying’
Dr Sian Williams – author, broadcaster and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, has appeared at the Senedd with the charity Maggie’s (‘Everyone’s home of cancer care’).
07 October 2024
When I was a first-year Trainee Counselling Psychologist, I needed to find a placement, fast. I had a Masters in Psychology, but had never actually sat in front of a client. 'I know', I thought. 'Cancer. I'll go into cancer care. I've had it, I've lost people to it, I think I might have a grip on the emotional complexities that come with it'.
I applied to Maggie's Cancer Care Centre in London. Attached to Charing Cross Hospital, it looked nothing like the clinical setting I'd experienced. An open, textural, beautiful building, full of light and space and with a kitchen table at its centre, with 'visitors' (never patients) having a natter over a cuppa and some biscuits. I spent 18 months there, happily facilitating groups, delivering one-to-one therapy, making tea.
Six years later, I'm in the Welsh Parliament, or Senedd, chairing a panel of Maggie's friends and supporters, talking to politicians about the difference mental health support makes to those with a cancer experience. Sponsored by Julie Morgan MS, the panel brought together oncologist Dr Russell Banner, mental health advocate Matt Johnson, Maggie's Business Development Director Sarah Beard and Marcus Grodentz, living with incurable prostate cancer, who visits Maggie's Cardiff for help and support. 'I was diagnosed with depression after my diagnosis, and it is hardly surprising' he says. 'Maggie's helped me cope. It was a relief to speak to others and know that I wasn't alone, that there were others going through the same as me.'
Maggie's was named after Maggie Jencks who, together with her husband Charles, wanted a different kind of space for those going through the disease, as she was. She died of breast cancer before the first one opened in Edinburgh in 1996, but her legacy lives on, in dozens of centres across the UK, all funded by donations, legacies and events. And it lives on in her vision, to bring people together in a calm place when they are going through the most turbulent of times. 'Above all, what matters is not to lose the joy of living in the fear of dying', she said.
Pop into a Maggie's Centre, sit around that kitchen table or grab a book and head to a quiet space and you will feel that joy. I am humbled to have worked there and to be a small part of its history.
