The Queen returned to one of her most cherished patronages on Wednesday as she visited Maggie’s Cheltenham to mark the charity’s 30th anniversary – and reflected on the legacy of a woman whose vision transformed cancer care across Britain.
Camilla, who has served as President of Maggie’s since 2008, was welcomed to the Gloucestershire centre she officially opened 16 years ago, joining staff, volunteers and supporters to celebrate three decades of the charity’s work supporting people living with cancer.
Speaking during the visit, the Queen described Maggie’s as “a remarkable charity”, and said it was “a huge pleasure” to be back at Cheltenham, a centre she said held particular personal significance.
Founded in 1995, Maggie’s offers free practical, emotional and psychological support to people affected by cancer. Its centres – now numbering 27 across the UK – are located alongside NHS hospitals but are deliberately designed to feel non-clinical, combining calm architecture, light-filled spaces and communal kitchens where visitors can talk, reflect or simply sit quietly with a cup of tea.
The charity was the brainchild of Maggie Keswick Jencks, who was diagnosed with advanced cancer in 1988 at the age of 47. Dissatisfied with the impersonal nature of hospital care, she believed passionately that people facing cancer needed more than medical treatment alone: they needed dignity, beauty, information and human connection.
During her speech, the Queen recalled first meeting Maggie decades earlier in London’s Swinging Sixties, when she ran the fashionable AnnaCat boutique in Chelsea.
“I remember her as warm, funny and generous,” Camilla said – qualities she noted remained evident in the way Maggie confronted her diagnosis.
The Queen said: “Maggie was convinced that people living with cancer crave a beautiful, comforting environment as they face the unknown; a place where they needn’t pretend to be fine; where they can receive expert support, sympathy and a cup of tea – and where laughter can come as naturally as tears, because sometimes that’s what’s wanted.”
Maggie died in 1995, but before her death worked with her husband, the architectural theorist Charles Jencks, to create a blueprint for the first Maggie’s Centre in Edinburgh. That pioneering model – a welcoming domestic space rather than a hospital ward – has since shaped every centre that followed.
The Queen described her own first visit to a Maggie’s Centre, in Edinburgh in 2008, admitting she had approached the Western General Hospital “slightly nervous”, expecting a formal clinical environment.
“Instead,” she said, “I was surprised and delighted to find a bright, peaceful place, with inspiring people full of stories about the difference that Maggie’s had made to them and their families.”
Shortly afterwards, Dame Laura Lee, the charity’s former chief executive, asked Camilla to become President – a role she accepted, she said, “with alacrity”.
“Now, 18 years and 27 centres on,” the Queen added, “I cannot help but look around and reflect how proud Maggie would be to see her incredible legacy.”
Throughout her presidency, Camilla has been a constant advocate for the charity, making regular visits to centres, championing its approach to holistic cancer care and maintaining close ties with its leadership and founding family.
In her remarks, she paid tribute to Maggie’s children, Lily and John, for continuing their mother’s work, and praised Dame Laura Lee – who led the organisation for more than two decades – as “a powerhouse if ever there was one”.
She also thanked the charity’s staff, supporters and volunteers for ensuring that those who walk through Maggie’s doors find what their founder once described as “the joy of living”.
