At its 32nd Anniversary Dinner at King’s College, Cambridge, on Wednesday 23 September 2026, EATTA will raise funds for Maggie’s Cambridge.
EATTA Chair Ian Drane recently visited the centre, meeting Fundraising Manager Hayley Webb and seeing the site of its new purpose-built home.
“Hayley introduced me to the team and volunteers, then showed me the current centre and plans for the impressive £8 million timber building, due to open in early 2028. Visiting the newly cleared site made the project feel very real. I also spent time with 15 men who meet at Maggie’s every Tuesday – a humbling reminder of why this charity matters.”
A special feature of the new centre will be the Gold Medal-winning National Garden Scheme garden from the 2024 RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Designed by Tom Stuart-Smith and sponsored by Project Giving Back, it will be rebuilt at Maggie’s Cambridge. Watch the six-minute video.
The garden’s carefully crafted shed, designed by architect Ben Stuart-Smith and built by Bristol furniture maker Fenton Scott-Fielder and his team, will also make the move. Read more about the Chelsea shed.
Why Cambridge needs a new centre
Since 2012, Maggie’s has supported people from two ground-floor flats at Addenbrooke’s Hospital. The small interim centre welcomed more than 11,000 visits in 2022, but it cannot accommodate the full programme of practical, emotional and psychological support.
Addenbrooke’s is a major teaching hospital, research hub and cancer centre serving patients across East Anglia. Demand is substantial: before the pandemic, the region recorded about 18,000 new cancer diagnoses each year.
The impact is already measurable. A study by Maggie’s Cambridge and Cambridge University Hospitals found that patients who used the centre reduced the average length of their initial NHS outpatient appointment from 40 minutes to 14. The new building will enable Maggie’s to support up to three times as many visits.
A welcoming treehouse in the woods
Designed by Niall McLaughlin MBE, winner of the RIBA Stirling Prize and Royal Gold Medal for Architecture, the timber centre will sit within the existing tree belt beside Addenbrooke’s. Conceived as a calming “treehouse” oasis, it will be approached along a path lined with hazel trees.
The new centre will include:
– a warm, welcoming kitchen
– a winter garden
– private rooms for one-to-one support
– larger spaces for groups, exercise classes and workshops
Its woodland garden, based on Tom Stuart-Smith’s Gold Medal-winning Chelsea design, will offer restorative outdoor space. Maggie’s hopes to open the centre in early 2028; until then, its team will continue supporting anyone who needs it from the interim centre.
What Maggie’s delivers
Founded in Edinburgh in 1996, Maggie’s now has 24 centres across the UK, alongside centres in Barcelona, Tokyo and Hong Kong. Together they receive around a third of a million visits a year.
Professional teams provide free, evidence-based practical, emotional and psychological support, helping people and families navigate diagnosis, treatment and life with cancer in welcoming, non-clinical surroundings.
Visitors say the difference is profound:
– 99% said visiting Maggie’s improved their understanding of cancer and treatment
– 99% felt less alone and better able to manage stress
– 97% felt more confident speaking with their medical teams
– An estimated 2.5 million people in the UK are living with cancer, projected to rise to 4 million by 2030.
– The new Cambridge centre will have capacity for about 30,000 visits a year – almost three times the current level.
– Maggie’s is entirely funded by donations, fundraising and gifts in Wills.
EATTA’s support
EATTA has donated more than £50,000 to local charities since 2010. This year’s anniversary dinner will continue that tradition by helping Maggie’s Cambridge create a place where more people with cancer, and their families, can find expert support when they need it most.