The speaker at our November meeting was Amy Lewis, a Fund Raising Manager from Macmillan Cancer Support.
Amy talked to us about the history of the Macmillan organisation, from the day it was founded in 1911 by Douglas Macmillan, who was a pioneer in his time as he firmly believed that smoking was the cause of cancer unlike his peers who used smoking to alleviate respiratory complaints.
Over the years the name has changed several times until in 2006 the organisation was branded as Macmillan Cancer Support as it is the only organisation out of 850 cancer charities, which actually helps people who are living with cancer.
With patients surviving longer due to early diagnosis and developing treatments, the calls on Macmillan are becoming more and more pronounced; as Macmillan not only provide the nurses that everyone knows about but all sorts of othersupport services including financial help. Many NHS clinicians and support workers are Macmillan trained and there are now information centres all over the country.
Amy was happy to report that the Macmillan service in Tameside was excellent and leading the way from many other boroughs in the Greater Manchester area. Macmillan are at the start of a new 3 year campaign “No one should face cancer alone” and the ambition is to reach out and improve the lives of everyone who has cancer.