Maggies

The weekly meeting of the Rotary Club of Kirkcaldy was held on Tuesday the 12^th September. There were 25 members in attendance and 2 guests.

Presidents business included mention of the fact that Kirkcaldy was the winner of the small city category in the Beautiful Scotland awards. The recent curry evening hosted by Zahid had been a great success and raised £1400 which will be donated towards End Polio Now. Ian Ireland is organising visits to other Fife clubs with the first being on Tuesday 19^th September. The youth clubs are very active with Balwearie entering both young chef and young musician, St. Andrews holding a coffee morning in aid of Macmillan and Kirkcaldy High holding a race evening. Kirkcaldy High are also raising funds to assist with the recent disasters worldwide and it was approved at the meeting the Club would assist them with a shelter box donation.

The guest speakers were Louise Duncan and Charlene Abbott from Maggie’s. Maggie’s was founded by cancer sufferer Maggie Keswick Jencks who after being terminally diagnosed felt that there really wasn’t enough support available for cancer sufferers. Maggie travelled to America to see the Wellness Community and brought their concept back to UK. The first centre was built using a disused stable block provided by the NHS. Maggie’s centres are therapeutic and not clinical, offering support in all sorts of areas ranging from nutrition and benefits advice to psychological assistance, both to sufferers and their families. The Fife Centre is reliant on donations and costs in the region of £450,000 a year to run, last year the centre helped 6,500 people. Following the talk SVP Robert Main presented a cheque to the ladies.