Campaigners are reeling at the decision

Funding issues have halted plans to build a Maggie’s cancer centre in Dumfries.

Trustees of the NHS’s charity endowment fund are refusing to shoulder the £1m outlay and £80,000 anuual costs.

The centre is hoping to built within the grounds of Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary.

Dumfries is especially poignant for the charity as it is the birthplace of its founder Maggie Keswick Jencks.

Campaigners say it would provide a vital service for the 1,200 people living with cancer in Dumfries and Galloway.

However, the health board's endowment committee made the decision not to fund the project in 2024/25 and probably also 2025/26 on 18 March.

The fund relies on community fundraising and has a balance of more than £10m. Last year its total expenditure was about £1m.

Andrew Walls, a former consultant surgeon and medical director at the Dumfries hospital, said: "The Maggie's movement is not asking the board to fund or pump prime the development from the Scottish government allocation.

"We are seeking to use funds that have been gifted to the board philanthropically and are absolutely not available to the board for any shoring up of their overspend.

"The trustees have taken it on themselves to dictate that Maggie's request falls outside their self-imposed limits of spending.

“I am unaware of anything in the endowment fund's constitution that supports that position."

Maggie's said it had been working with Dumfries and Galloway health board on a proposal for a new centre for almost 10 years.

"We believe that a Maggie’s centre in Dumfries would make a significant impact on the lives of people with cancer, their families and friends," it said.

"We would really like to see a Maggie’s centre in the home of our founder Maggie Keswick Jencks and ensure people living with cancer in Dumfries and Galloway can access our expert support on their doorstep."