Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry visits Cornhill Macmillan Centre in Perth

Staff, patients and volunteers at Cornhill Macmillan Centre welcomed His Grace the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, the Lord High Commissioner of the Church of Scotland during an official visit today.

Cornhill Macmillan Centre is a purpose-built specialist palliative care unit which provides services for people with cancer and other life limiting illnesses.

Lord Lieutenant Brigadier Sir Melville Jameson, Vice-Chair of NHS Tayside Board Lorna Birse-Stewart and Perth & Kinross Provost Dennis Melloy welcomed the Duke during the official visit.

Lead consultant palliative care services for Tayside Dr Deans Buchanan, consultant palliative care for P&K Dr Claire Douglas, clinical coordinator specialist palliative care for P&K Kirsty McQuarrie, team leader Lisa McRae and Deputy Lord Lieutenant Dr James Kynaston also attended.

As part of the visit, His Grace was introduced to various teams working within specialist palliative care in Perth & Kinross.  He met with people involved in the range of services provided at Cornhill Macmillan Centre, including volunteering and Cornhill Day Care.

The Duke met staff and service users from the Dementia Café and also spoke with patients who have Motor Neurone Disease (MND) and their carers to discuss their experiences.  Specialist MND staff provided information on the development of a patient-centred management approach of MND in Tayside.

Staff from Giraffe Perth, a social enterprise which offers employment activities to local people with mental ill health, disabilities and other disadvantages in the workplace, served a buffet lunch as part of the official visit.

Kirsty McQuarrie said “It has been an honour to meet the Duke and host his visit at Cornhill Macmillan Centre. The whole team at Cornhill Macmillan Centre work very hard to provide specialist services for people with cancer and life-limiting illnesses and we have welcomed the opportunity to share information on these services during today’s visit. I would like to thank everyone involved with the visit.”

Following the visit to Cornhill, His Grace also visited the Macmillan Quarrymill Coffee Shop.  Over the past 27 years the coffee shop has raised £1million for the Macmillan Cornhill Support Group which has supported the provision of a number of services at Cornhill, including relaxation therapies, hairdressing and bereavement support for families.

The Duke unveiled a plaque at Quarrymill commemorating the work and money raised by the volunteers at the Macmillan Quarrymill Coffee Shop.