Our spokespeople
We have expert voices on a range of cancer support related issues:
Enquiries
For all enquiries about our spokespeople, please email the PR team who will be able to advise on the most relevant spokesperson and arrange interviews.
For regional media looking to speak to centre staff, please contact the relevant centre who will be able to assist.
I have seen first-hand, the remarkable difference that being able to visit a Maggie’s centre makes to a whole community and I am determined that everyone living with cancer has their own Maggie’s.
Former oncology nurse Laura has been at the helm of Maggie’s since its inception in 1995.
She met Maggie Keswick Jencks when Maggie was being treated at the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh. Laura was her Oncology Nurse, and together they worked on a blueprint for a different type of cancer care.
When our first centre opened in the grounds of the Western General Hospital in 1996, she became our first member of staff as Programme Director before becoming Chief Executive in 1998.
Laura has devoted most of her adult life to making sure people with cancer, and their family and friends, are able to access our expert support when they need it most.
As Chief Executive Laura has overseen the growth of the organisation.
We now have 24 centres in the grounds of NHS hospitals across the UK, as well as a growing international network.
As well as acting as client for every new build, designed by world renowned architects following our own brief, Laura has also overseen the development of our professional programme of support to meet the practical, emotional and psychological needs of people living with cancer.
Laura has worked tirelessly for 27 years making an incredible difference to the lives of people with cancer and was recognised for her services to people with cancer when she made a Dame in the Queen's Birthday Honours list in 2020.
Laura is determined that one day no one will have to go through cancer without having the option of visiting a Maggie’s centre. And Maggie’s has never been more needed: with treatments delayed and the cost-of-living crisis having a huge impact on people with cancer, people visiting our centres say that have experienced heightened stress, anxiety, anger, fear and trauma.
Under Laura’s leadership, Maggie’s centres were visited* nearly 300,000 times in 2022. 67,000 were new people with cancer or new carers of someone with cancer.
Interviews
Dame Laura Lee is available for interviews both in person and remotely and is always happy and eager to discuss the issues that really matter to her. These include:
- Building a charity from foundation to growth
- Architecture, design and gardens - the impact on health and wellbeing
- Why every person with cancer deserves access to emotional and psychological support
- The impact of the cost-of-living crisis on people with cancer
- Why a revolution in hospital design and an integrated care pathway is a pivotal moment to do more for people with cancer
- The future of cancer care
- The importance of emotional support for people with cancer
- How to live well with cancer
Download a full information pack about Dame Laura Lee.
Email media@maggies.org if you’d like to discuss an interview request.
Photographer: © Nick Edwards
Our centres all have clinical psychologists who help people manage the extreme fear, stress and trauma that comes with living with cancer.
Like Robin Muir from our Manchester centre who has previously spoken on BBC Breakfast about the emotional and psychological needs of people living with cancer.
Our centres all have Benefits Advisors who help people with their money worries and navigate the benefits system.
Like Tom from Forth Valley who has regularly spoken on radio and provided quotes for newspapers.
Our centres have cancer information specialists who can answer questions about treatment, provide emotional support and much more.
Like Andy from our Edinburgh centre who has spoken on BBC 1’s Children in Need about the emotional impact of a having parent with cancer on children, or Sinead from our West London centre who has spoken on Times Radio and BBC London.
Our centres are designed by top architects following our architectural brief.
Our architects, like Lord Norman Foster can speak about the importance of the design in enhancing wellbeing.
Our gardens are very important spaces.
Our landscapers, such as Sarah Price and Dan Pearson, can talk about how our gardens are an extension of the support of our centres.