Royal Preston Hospital’s cancer centre café founder has died aged 81

A much-loved Fulwood woman who has been the driving force behind the coffee shop at Royal Preston Hospital’s cancer centre has died.

Marion Jackson set up the Rosemere Cancer Centre coffee shop in 2002.

Since then it has brought in more than £400,000 for the charity as it operates on a not-for-profit basis with a team of volunteers who were led by the 81-year-old.

She died earlier this month after suffering a fatal heart attack at home.

‘She left us in awe’

Marion’s son, Tim, led tributes to his mother.

He said: “My mum was a truly inspirational woman. Besides her children and grandchildren, her greatest joys were her work for the coffee shop, teaching little children how to read and music, which was an interest she shared with my dad.

“My mum and dad were devoted to one another. She was a beautiful singer and he was a pianist, who could have been a professional concert pianist had he not been diagnosed with angina in his 20s and advised against taking on the stress of live performance.

“Dad became a high school music teacher instead and they both joined Preston Cecilian Choral Society. Dad was its pianist but from time to time, he gave solo recitals with mum beside him, turning his music pages, which as anyone who plays an instrument knows, is a skill in itself.”

“Whenever I gave them lifts, my parents, who lived in the same Fulwood house all their married lives, would sit in the back of the car holding hands. My dad died in January 2024 of pancreatic cancer. He was treated at the Royal Blackburn Hospital and my mum spent the entire duration of visiting time with him every day he was there.

“After his passing, mum was much diminished but determined to live life, which left us in awe. She went on a holiday to Japan and returned to working shifts in the coffee shop. Her favourite shift was the Saturday morning shift for new radiotherapy patients and their families, which are funded by Rosemere Cancer Foundation and designed to relieve fear and anxiety. Mum understood what it was like for families to be facing the unknown and was brilliantly supportive.

Marion in the Rosemere coffee shop Pic: Rosemere

“Her incredible understanding made her the teacher she was. For many years, she worked at St Peter’s CE Primary in Fulwood. She only ever worked with Reception or Year One children. She had a fantastic way of helping them learn to read, which she also used to teach myself and my sister Zoe and my daughter Lana.

“Mum would cut out stepping stones and print words on them. You would leap from stepping stone to stepping stone shouting out the word you had landed on until before you knew it, you were reading sentences.”

‘Forever in her debt’

Marion and Rosemere volunteers marking their annual donations from the coffee shop Pic: Rosemere

Head of charities for Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and chief officer for Rosemere Cancer Foundation, Dan Hill, said: “We will be forever indebted to Marion for founding our coffee shop. Marion did the most incredible job and had the most amazing empathy with its customers of cancer centre patients, their loved ones and staff.

“It’s a tribute to Marion that among the coffee shop volunteers, there has always been a number of former patients and patients’ family members and friends.

“They know the benefits of the coffee shop’s value added service and want that to continue for future patients and their loved ones. It really hit home to all of us during the Covid pandemic when the coffee shop was forced to close that what patients and staff really missed the most wasn’t the tea or coffee that could be left for them in flasks but rather the warmth and kindness of Marion and her team. As much as the funds raised, Marion’s legacy is building a hub in which everyone feels supported.”