Maggie’s Centres had nine fully operational Centres in 2009, ten in 2010; and have a record three new Centres set to open during 2011 – one in Scotland, one in England and one in Wales. 

The People’s Postcode Lottery supports Maggie’s in Scotland, England and Wales, offering Maggie’s the financial security and stability required to open new Centres.

The People’s Postcode Lottery has just announced that they have raised £10million for charities across the UK, since launching three years ago.  

Maggie’s Centres was taken on by the People’s Postcode Lottery as one of their founding charities in Scotland in January 2008 and was then announced as an official charity for the lottery in both England and Wales.

Both relatively young organisations in the UK, The People’s Postcode Lottery and Maggie’s Centres have grown together, with the two mirroring growth in similar locations across the country.

As well as allowing Maggie’s Centres to have the freedom to grow more Centres and reach more people affected by cancer than ever before, Maggie’s have also been able to use the financial input from the People’s Postcode Lottery to trial new programme’s within their programme of support.

A recent such addition to Maggie’s Centre’s programme of support is the ‘Getting Started with Cancer Treatment’ programme.  Getting Started is a free workshop for people diagnosed with cancer and aims to help participants understand their treatment, manage any potential side-effects and be as healthy in mind and body as possible throughout treatment. The workshop is accompanied by a specially created handbook, authored by a member of staff at the Maggie’s Centre in Lanarkshire.

To reach more people across Scotland and deliver new programmes like Getting Started, Maggie’s relies on the generous support of the players of the People’s Postcode Lottery, who have given the charity an incredible £1.57 million to date by taking part.

Maggie’s CEO Laura Lee said: “Congratulations to the players of the People’s Postcode Lottery for raising such an astounding sum of money for charities.  Your generous support is directly helping Maggie’s Centres to offer people the space, time, skills and support needed to understand and manage an experience of cancer.”

Mr and Miss Scotland bounced into action to thank People’s Postcode Lottery players for raising the £10million for charities.

Gavin MacDonald and Nicola Mimnagh joined youngsters at St Vincent’s Primary School in East Kilbride to mark the charity milestone.