About Us
The Management Committee
Chair: Jill Wheeldon
Minutes/committee secretary: Elspeth Jamieson
Fundraising/social secretary: Jean Ross
Treasurer: Henry McFadzean
Committee: Linda Forster, Anne McDonald, Jane Sloan, Margaret Young, Kirsteen Dickson, Jessie Milby
Macmillan Cancer Support and the NHS are also represented.
A few words of introduction from our chairman, Jill Wheeldon.
The Scottish Guidelines on Cancer Care (1994) state that “good Palliative Care is assisted by the availability of support organisations for patients and patients’ carers.” Dumfries and Galloway Health Board has consistently placed emphasis on developing cancer care. Stranraer Cancer Drop in Centre Association was created to supply information and support for people with cancer, their carers, friends and relations – in fact anyone touched by cancer and other serious illnesses.
Regular meetings for these people were held by Irene Hunter, a district nurse who recognised and responded to need. Then, at a public meeting on 24th October 1998, the extent of local support for her initiative became apparent and from this the Drop in Centre was developed. Initial funding came from generous public donation. Grants followed from local and national bodies. In particular Macmillan Cancer Support has provided funding over several years. Currently our main source of funding is the local community, through donations, individual fund raising events and our own activities.
In planning the development of the Centre and to help in formulating the vision of what it could become, we visited the Maggie’s Centre in Edinburgh and Drop in Centres in Ayrshire. We talked to people involved in cancer care and treatment and to those affected by it. We studied the literature on palliative care. Macmillan Cancer Support were, and still are, an invaluable source of advice and support. We adapt and use their policies and procedures wherever possible and they are represented on our management committee. One of our managers was involved in the development of the Cancer Information and Support Centre at Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary and we continue to work closely with them.
Our service began in the Social Services Family Unit, moving to the Waverley Medical Centre when it opened in 2002. In September 2006, we moved again – to a purpose built suite of rooms, with separate access, in the new Galloway Community Hospital. For this we are indebted to the Health Board, the local Committee of the Order of St John and Macmillan Cancer Support. Another significant development occurred in the spring of 2008, when after a lengthy discussion period, the NHS took over responsibility for the employment of our two managers, though not for the management of the Centre itself.
In the Centre we can offer access to a wide and ever- expanding range of information, resources and services - from reflexology to financial advice, from yoga to cognitive behavioural therapy. For all of this the management committee is enormously grateful to our managers, to the professional support we enlist, to the Friends of the Association and to our hard working band of volunteers who give so generously of their time and energy.
I have lived in this area since my retirement in 2003 and I have found friendship and a warm welcome here. I enjoy walking, swimming and yoga. I sing in the Ladies’ Choir and am a committee member of Stranraer Music For All, which brings live classical music to the area. My own background is in education. After obtaining a degree in English, I trained as a secondary school teacher, eventually becoming Vice Principal, and for a while Principal, of a Leicestershire Community College. I have four children and while three live and work in England, the youngest, Tom, is a member of the Loch Arthur Community near Dumfries.
I feel proud to be associated with the Centre. I love the life affirming warmth and humour and the continuing care and understanding to be found there. There’s always privacy for a personal consultation, but lots of people gain tremendous support from a chat and coffee round the kitchen table. I have met many brave and inspiring people here and among professional health workers I have found the same idealism, vision, dedication and commitment that I remember in so many of the teachers I was privileged to work with.
P.S. Did you know that the snowdrop symbol on our logo means “Hope”?
Opening Times
Wednesday
10am - 6pm
Thursday & Friday
10am - 3pm
Patient Comments
Galloway Community Hospital