Jan 12, 12 : Monty drives campaign to build two new cancer centres

Watching his mother go through the pain and anguish of lung cancer, Colin Montgomerie wished his family had been given the emotional support that could have helped them cope with the devastation they all suffered.

Since his mother's death in 1991, the golfer has been working to try to make sure that other patients and families facing the same trauma do not have to go through it alone.

Through the Elizabeth Montgomerie Foundation - the charity set up in his mother's name - he is now close to fulfilling the ambition of opening two new Maggie's Cancer Caring centres to give this vital support.

The Scotsman and its sister paper Scotland on Sunday have also linked up with Maggie's to try to ensure that the special kind of help the organisation provides is available to as many patients as possible.

Before deciding to support Maggie's, Montgomerie said he visited the centres to see for himself what they did for patients and their families.

He told The Scotsman: "I was amazed at the thought given to the families alongside the patients.

"The families became so involved in the Maggie's centres, and I think that is so important and something I would have wished that we had when my mother was diagnosed with cancer many years ago.

"There were three boys - my father, my brother and I – and we're not really the best at coping with that sort of thing.

"It's great that the families can get involved."

Montgomerie said that by families being involved, they were better equipped with the practical and emotional support they needed to help themselves and the loved-one living with cancer.

And he said if the centres had been around when his family were facing cancer, it would have provided valuable emotional support.

"There would have been someone professional to talk to so we could relate to mum and how she was feeling. It was more the emotional support we needed as to what to say and when to say it," he said. "Having no experience of this before, it was quite difficult for us.

Montgomerie has been particularly keen to focus his fund-raising efforts in Scotland, with its higher rates of cancer and deprivation causing heightened rates of ill-health and early death.

He also wants to raise awareness of the risks our lifestyles pose to our chances of developing cancer.

"We live a very unhealthy lifestyle here in Scotland, especially in the deprived areas, and that is why Lanarkshire is so important - it is one of the most deprived areas in Britain," the former Ryder Cup star said.

"Our diets are bad. We smoke far too much. We drink far too much. It does aid illness, there's no question and we are pushing the boundaries."

And the health problems caused by smoking are of particular concern to Montgomerie.

"Smoking is, I hate to say, self-inflicted," he said. "My mother was a smoker herself. When she started smoking it was, with Audrey Hepburn and the stuff that went on, almost unacceptable not to. It was part of life, without us knowing the health hazards that went with it.

"Now that we do, I see youngsters smoking in the streets and thinking they are cool. I wish I could go up to them and say 'here’s an X-ray of a lung that has been smoking and here’s an X-ray of one that hasn't'.

"Hopefully you could get them stopping quicker. It is not cool to smoke. It is not cool in any way."

Montgomerie said passive smoking was also a major issue, particularly before the smoking ban in public places was introduced in 2006. He said the smoking ban probably should have started 20 years earlier than it did. He said more needed to be done to discourage people from smoking and educate them on the risks.

"There is a lot we can't do, but there’s a lot we can do and I think we should be helping ourselves more than we are doing," Montgomerie said.

"You can walk into shops and petrol stations at the moment and see thousands of cigarettes available. I just look at them and think about my mum and others in that position and think it is very sad."

Two new Maggie's centres are in development in Lanarkshire and Aberdeen in his mother's name, and Montgomerie has a busy year ahead raising the final funds to get the centres open and helping more patients and their families.

They hope to have met their fundraising targets before the summer.

"It has been a big journey to get to this stage. We started this about three years ago with the foundation in very difficult economic times," he said. "To set up a charity like this and then the whole economic climate just decides to fall is not easy. It has been challenging in many ways and yet the support we have had has been incredible."

The Elizabeth Montgomerie Foundation is now about two-thirds of the way towards raising the £3 million needed for Aberdeen centre, while the Lanarkshire project, due to start building in the spring, is short by just £100,000.

"Maggie's is an extremely well run, professional organisation and the work they do around Scotland and Britain already is quite phenomenal. I am delighted I could be associated with them."

Article by scotsman.com