About Maggie's Programme

A Maggie’s Centre aims to help you make a healthy adjustment to the impact of cancer on your life. This section of the site looks at some of the specific elements of the support people affected by cancer can receive from our centres.

For detailed information about cancer, visit Maggie's CancerLinks. Maggie's CancerLinks is designed to help you find your way around the vast amount of cancer information on the internet.

Maggie's programme has five core elements:

Emotional and Psychological Support

Each Maggie's Centre has a team of cancer support specialists (including clinical or chartered counselling psychologists) who facilitate group support, contribute to psycho-educational courses, and provide individual support sessions.

We also run support groups for carers and cancer support groups – please contact your local centre for full details of what is on in your area.

Research shows that major life events can greatly benefit from psychological and emotional work over time. This can help you make a healthy psychological adjustment to a cancer diagnosis and living with cancer. Psychological and emotional support theories underlie all aspects of the Maggie's programme.

Relaxation and Stress Management

Structured relaxation and stress management techniques can significantly reduce emotional distress and help healthy psychological and physical adjustment to a cancer diagnosis. They can also help if you have specific difficulties such as a phobia, pain and sleep problems.
 
Maggie’s values relaxation and stress management. At Maggie's you can learn various techniques to use in your everyday life through a six week Managing Stress, Learning Relaxation and Visualisation course. 

We also run Stress Reduction and Relaxation group sessions on a regular basis – a time to sit back, relax and relieve the stress you may be experiencing.

Information

Having a thorough understanding of the information you have received about your diagnosis is proven to help reduce anxiety and uncertainty and help you regain a sense of control.

At Maggie’s we will provide personalised information tailored to your situation.  We cannot advise on individual medical treatment plans but will help to clarify your understanding of your diagnosis and treatment and devise questions for your medical team. You can also browse through and borrow from our centres' extensive libraries, or access Maggie's CancerLinks for detailed information and links to useful information from other websites.

Many people receive clear information directly from their medical team and may not have huge gaps to fill. However, it can seem less challenging to access emotional support indirectly by asking for further information in a Maggie’s Centre than to confront the psychological impact of a cancer diagnosis head on.

Providing support through information giving and using this to draw out and then reduce fears and concerns remains fundamental to Maggie’s programme.

The cornerstone of our programme is that it is tailored to the individual's needs. You will be welcomed by a member of the team, most likely a cancer support specialist who will be there for you if you call in to the centre again.

Our support specialists have significant experience and training in cancer care. They will have time to listen to you about your situation, suggest how you might benefit from aspects of the programme and introduce you to other members of the Maggie's support team.

We run many different support groups at the centres such as carers' support groups, young adult groups, parents' groups and groups for particular cancers such as breast cancer and prostate cancer. Please visit or call your local centre for details of the groups they are running at the moment.

Benefits Advice

Financial issues can be a major concern for people affected by cancer. At Maggie’s you can speak to benefits advisers with extensive knowledge of the benefits system who can give advice regarding what benefits you may be entitled to and any other forms of financial or practical help that may be available.

This benefits advice service is both drop-in and appointment based and will help guide you through the complex system giving help with completing the forms.

Other Support for Living with Cancer

Alongside the core elements of the programme we run a number of sessions on specific areas.

Tai Chi
Tai Chi is accessible to all ages and physical abilities and is practised at Maggie’s as a simple 'meditative' exercise to aid relaxation and to help keep the mind calm and focused.

Sessions are run by experienced teachers, the moves and techniques are all explained before being demonstrated. 

Look Good…Feel Better
'Look Good, Feel Better', provides an opportunity for women with a cancer diagnosis to learn about cosmetic possibilities for managing changes while undergoing treatment. 

Nutrition workshops
We run Nutrition Workshops at Maggie’s to promote a healthy, balanced and varied diet.  The workshop provides an overview of the subject area and allows you to ask questions of professional staff.