WHETHER it's a wedding, a birthday party or a funeral, there's a constant presence at Forde family gatherings.
It's a charity collection tin – and it's always in aid of Maggie's.
Sisters Roisin, 30, Anna, 27, and Monica, 20, know that the cancer support charity is at the heart of their family.
The Glasgow siblings lost three aunts on their dad's side to breast and ovarian cancer in just four years.
That's why they are pulling on their trainers – along with mum Lorna, 52 – for a second consecutive year to take part in the Glasgow Night Hike.
The 10-mile walk, which in three years has raised £200,000 for Maggie's, ended last year with a cup of tea in the kitchen of the Gatehouse at the Western Infirmary.
The red sandstone centre in Dumbarton Road was Glasgow's first Maggie's Centre, which Evening Times readers helped create by raising £1.2 million.
Just being back in the 10-year-old centre proves emotional for the Forde family.
"Whenever I try to tell the story, you can see I get very emotional again," said mum Lorna ahead of the walk.
"We're hoping this year there will be a big group of Fordes and Forde relatives who will take part."
The Forde sisters are only too aware that the cancer that killed their dad's three sisters could have a genetic link.
Their dad, Damian, who is doing a seven-day trek up Mount Kilimanjaro for Maggie's in September, was the eighth of 10 children brought up in Byres Road.
"It's a big family," said Lorna, who lives in Bearsden.
"There were seven boys and three girls – and all three girls have died.
"They were very outgoing girls – great sports people and they played netball for Scotland.
"They were very big personalities. It was a great tragedy."
Their dad's eldest sister, Eileen Taylor, was first to be diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 32.
Heathcare professional Lorna recalled that Eileen benefited from the sanctuary of the Maggie's Centre in Edinburgh, which was easiest to reach from her home in Dumfries.
The youngest aunt, Nuala Campbell, who lived in Knutsford in Cheshire, was only 46 when she died of breast cancer in 2001.
At the time of Nuala's funeral, Eileen had found out that her cancer had returned – and middle sister Rosaleen McGuire had been told following a minor operation that she had ovarian cancer.
Maggie's proved a lifeline to Cambuslang languages teacher Rosaleen, who attended relaxation classes at the Gatehouse.
Rosaleen lost her battle against ovarian cancer in 2003 at the age of 58, three years after being diagnosed.
Eileen succumbed two years later, aged 61.
"Roisin, who works in finance, says it has been harder on other members of the family.
SHE said: "We're lucky, because it's the other cousins who have lost their mums.
"It has also made us very close – not that we weren't close before.
"At any family things, everybody attends, and everyone is very supportive of each other."
The Forde women raised £900 by completing the Night Hike in 2011, alongside more than 350 participants.
During the course of the route, they discovered that the organisers had put their name on a Chinese lantern to be illuminated at Cottiers.
Stopping off at various buildings had extra significance for Edinburgh University architectural history student Monica.
Roisin said: "It made you feel proud to be part of Glasgow. You do the walk down the river and you see all the gorgeous sights that you don't normally see."
Monica added: "You could go at whatever pace you wanted. We dropped back and arrived at different times – and you got food at each place as well."
Anna's hoping to enlist brother, Fergus, 23, to join the girls this year after seeing first-hand the impact Maggie's can have through her work at Glasgow's Southern General Hospital.
"For me, to work in the hospital and then to come here and meet patients, you wouldn't see them as patients, more as service users," said Anna.
"They are people rather than patients."
Maggie's opened its second Glasgow centre in October last year at Gartnavel Hospital. The charity aims to have 15 centres in the UK by 2014, including a Lanarkshire centre at Monklands General Hospital.
THE third annual Glasgow Night Hike takes place on Friday, September 7.
As media partner, the Evening Times will be first with the news and photographs from the event.
The walk, which was launched by former Loose Women presenter Kaye Adams, starts at the Riverside Museum at 7.30pm with a party. It goes on to The Lighthouse in Mitchell Lane, Glasgow Art Club in Bath Street, the Kibble Palace in the Botanic Gardens and finishes at Maggie's Gartnavel.
Entertainment and refreshments are provided along the route, which takes between three and six hours to complete.
Registration costs £30 each, or £23 per person in a team of four or more, and participants are asked to raise a minimum of £185.
l To register or for more details, visit www.maggies centres.org/glasgownight hike or call 0300 123 1801.