we'll give maggie's a night to remember TV PRESENTER KAYE WILL PULL ON HER WALKING SHOES AND STRIDE OUT FOR CANCER CASH

BROADCASTER Kaye Adams is to join hundreds of fundraisers on a moon-lit meander through the streets of Glasgow.

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The former Loose Women presenter is hitting the road for Maggie's Night Hike.

The third annual event is a 10-mile night-time walk that takes in the Maggie's cancer support centres as well as buildings of architectural interest along the route.

As media partner, the Evening Times will be first with the news and photographs from the Glasgow event, which has so far raised £200,000 for the charity.

Kaye, a regular reporter on The One Show, joined volunteers and staff at the charity's gleaming new centre at Gartnavel Hospital.

The £3million support unit is the finishing point of the walk, which takes place in September.

The drop-in centre opened in October last year, just a stone's throw from the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre.

Kaye said: "The walk is something really special that you can do with a Friday night and enjoy it.

"The bottom line is that you're going to help raise money for something that is very important to people's lives."

The gardens at Maggie's Gartnavel were created by landscape designer Lily Jencks, whose late mother Maggie Keswick Jencks founded the concept of an emotional support centre for patients with cancer.

Evening Times readers raised £1.2m to create Glasgow's first Maggie's Centre, which opened at the gatehouse of the Western Infirmary in Dumbarton Road in 2002.

The host of BBC Radio Scotland morning show Call Kaye believes that the pace of the Night Hike is right up her street.

"Gabbing – that's what I do. Ambulant gabbing," said Kaye, who lives in the West End.

"Obviously there are some brilliant fundraising 5k and 10k runs, the Race For Life, which are all brilliant.

"The great thing about a walk is you still have some breath left to talk to the people who you're going along with."

Kaye, a mum-of-two, became involved in the charity almost 10 years after the opening of Maggie's first Glasgow centre.

The idea of the sponsored walk, celebrating friendship and great architecture, began in London in 2005.

Last year's Glasgow walk gave fundraisers exclusive access to the new Riverside Museum, designed by celebrated architect Zaha Hadid, whose first commission in the UK was the Maggie's Centre in Kirkcaldy.

It featured special performances by Fusion, semi-finalists in Britain's Got Talent, and The Box, finalists on Sky One's Got to Dance.

This year's Glasgow Night Hike takes place on Friday, September 7.

The walk starts at the Riverside Museum, then goes on to The Lighthouse on Mitchell Lane, Glasgow Art Club on Bath Street, the Kibble Palace in the Botanic Gardens, and finishes at Maggie's Gartnavel.

It begins at 7.30pm with an opening party where participants will be issued with an event T-shirt, route map and bottle of water.

Entertainment and refreshments will be provided at stopping points 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.

Maggie's aims to have 15 centres across the UK by 2014, including a Lanarkshire centre at Monklands General Hospital.

Centre manager Gillian Hailstones, who as a nurse specialised in oncology and palliative care, has been with the charity for three years.

She said: "One of the things that comes with a cancer diagnosis is a real sense of isolation.

"A key part of the centre is about creating community and encouraging people to get support from each other, but doing it in a way that is fun and a relief as well.

"The walk reflects that.

"You have a sense of it being everybody together. It's not a race – it's not about you and your individual situation."

The staff and volunteers who work at the centres do not wear uniforms or badges, but welcome newcomers into the centre with a tour and a cuppa.

Barbara Whitenett, 63, volunteers one day a week at the new Gartnavel centre.

She became aware of the charity after working as an auxiliary nurse at the Western Infirmary.

She said: "It's great that people volunteer their time to fundraise to keep places like this going.

"It's very necessary and it does a lot for the people who come to the Beatson – it's a stepping stone back to their normal life."

maureen.ellis@ eveningtimes.co.uk

The first Glasgow Night Hike was held in 2010, with 450 people raising £110,000 for Maggie's.

It costs each centre almost £500,000 per year to operate their free, drop-in services.

The first Maggie's Centre in Glasgow, designed by local architects Page\Park, was opened in 2002 in the old Gatehouse of the Western Infirmary.

Glasgow's second Maggie's Centre, designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, was opened in October 2011 at Gartnavel Hospital.

Raising £200 can provide four, six-week 'Living with Cancer' courses.

Raising £40 could pay for a one-hour benefits advice session at Maggie's, while £62 could pay for psychological support for one hour.

Maggie's aims to have 15 centres across the UK by 2014.

To register, or for more information, visit www.maggies centres.org/glasgownighthike or call 0300

123 1801

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