When Kate was diagnosed with breast cancer, she was living in Shoreham-on-Sea with her wife and their young son, and working as a social worker for Brighton & Hove City Council. “Life was good,” says Kate. “We had done an entire rebuild of our house and we were enjoying normal family life, then a cancer diagnosis suddenly brought uncertainty.”
Here, Kate shares her experience of the shock of diagnosis. She reveals how spending time in the landscapes she loves helped her to heal, and how Macmillan Cancer Support provided the space and kindness she needed to make life-shaping changes during a time of uncertainty.
Kate’s story: the diagnosis
Kate had been having regular mammograms through a genetic screening programme. It was after one of these mammograms she received a letter saying further investigation was needed.
“At the beginning of a cancer journey, there isn’t a lot of information,” Kate says of the chaos that ensued. “It could go one way or the other.” The uncertainty was, she adds, like being “in a tumble dryer every single day... It’s like the life you thought you had has been thrown up in the air and you aren’t sure where the pieces will land.”
While waiting for a hospital appointment, Kate and her wife were told about a café over the road. “We’re not going to turn down cake!” she says. It turned out to be much more than a café – it was the Macmillan Horizon Centre, a dedicated support centre for those affected by cancer. This sanctuary offers a range of support, from acupuncture to advice. “We walked in and it was a different world,” says Kate. “That was our introduction to Macmillan.”
Macmillan: providing calm in the storm
Over a third of Macmillan services, including those offered at the Horizon Centre, are funded by gifts in wills – services that meant so much to Kate during her cancer journey. As well as practical advice, therapeutic support and a safe place to exercise, the Horizon Centre offered respite in the form of a beautiful rooftop garden.
Being in nature helped Kate sit with her diagnosis. She noticed how being in green spaces helped her feel better, gifting her space to rethink the direction of her life. “I just needed to sit with the uncertainty,” she says. “By giving myself space… that’s how garden design came to me, and Macmillan was part of that.”
“The Horizon Centre had provided something that wasn’t medical,” she says. “It was human. Human and healing.”
Kate wanted to build on her 25-year career helping people as a social worker. She trained in garden design at One Garden Brighton, launching her own design business alongside her work as a social worker before leaving her job last year to focus entirely on design as a way of helping to connect people, places and nature.
Healing and the journey forward
Kate has felt a close connection to nature since she was a young girl, growing up on the Wirral, helping her dad in the garden and eating “Christmas cake on Boxing Day in the heather on the slopes of Moel Famau in North Wales”.
Spending time in nature has also been instructive in her healing and recovery. Immediately after the diagnosis, Kate and her family spent time walking in Mawgan Porth on the North Cornwall coast. “Being in the sea, with the perpetual motion of the waves and the adrenaline, makes me feel so alive,” says Kate, “as does taking exhilarating cliff-top walks among the heather and gorse.”
“Our awareness changes when we step outside,” she continues. “Big skies give our brains space, and our bodies respond physically to a change in environment. The air, the rain and the sun affect us and make us feel alive – and that connection to nature definitely helps the body to heal.”
Her local landscape in West Sussex is a source of inspiration: the red valerian, silver ragwort and sea kale that brighten Shoreham Beach in May; the orchids, horseshoe vetch and milkwort that adorn Mill Hill in the summer. “I often walk along the River Adur to Bramber, as it can be really quiet,” she reveals. “I love it in the winter, even if there is a chilly wind, as you can see the redwings feasting on hawthorn berries.”
“You see nature in a different way after a diagnosis of cancer,” she says. “Whether it’s the vastness of a range of mountains or the minutiae of a bee in the garden. Seeing backlit fresh green leaves and watching the sunset feels richer than ever. I feel so privileged to be wherever I am and to be experiencing what is in front of me.”
Happily, Kate completed her cancer treatment. She has been cancer-free for many years and is enjoying the many rewards of a new life in garden design.
Support when you need it most
Macmillan Cancer Support was there for Kate when she needed space, safety and kindness. The services she received at the Horizon Centre and the calm of the rooftop garden helped her recentre and find a new direction of travel.
One third of Macmillan’s funds come from legacy giving, and Kate has a special message for those who have already left a gift in their will:
“There is a saying that true generosity is planting a tree under whose shade you know you will never sit. And you did that for me and my family. Your gift allowed us to find peace and humanity during some of the darkest days of our lives. Thank you.”
And for those considering leaving a gift in their will to Macmillan, she says: “Macmillan offered me sanctuary in my storm, and they want to be there for all of us… leaving a gift to Macmillan in your will means that you will bring light into someone’s darkest days, even long after you have gone.”
Macmillan’s support helped Kate find the space and calm she needed when it mattered most. A gift in your will makes it possible for Macmillan Cancer Support to do whatever it takes to help more people with cancer get the best care the UK has to offer, whoever and wherever they are. To find out more about how to leave a gift in your will to Macmillan Cancer Support, order your free Gifts in Wills guide.
© Macmillan Cancer Support, registered charity in England and Wales (261017), Scotland (SC039907) and the Isle of Man (604). Also operating in Northern Ireland. A company limited by guarantee, registered in England and Wales company number 2400969. Isle of Man company number 4694F. Registered office: 3rd Floor, Bronze Building, The Forge, 105 Sumner Street, London, SE1 9HZ. VAT no: 668265007