Inspired by a passionate belief in the healing and uplifting powers of architecture, Maggies Cancer Caring Centres are quietly extraordinary spaces in the landscape of modern medicine. It was while suffering from advanced cancer that Maggie Keswick Jencks conceived the idea of a beautifully designed space offering free practical, emotional and social support to those affected by cancer, and, following her death in 1995, the first Maggies Centre opened in Edinburgh in 1996. Having himself been touched by cancer through the death of his twin brother twelve years earlier, Timothy Hyman sensitively captures the experiences of the centres users and the rhythms of life in this small haven away from the world. While not always an easy journey, 'The Maggies Year' is an intimate meditation on the determination to not lose the joy of living in the fear of dying.