Hebridean Men's Cancer Support Group
We support people who are affected by Cancer and live in the Outer Hebrides.
HMCSG AGM 30 March 2026
Our chairman Angus was unwell yesterday so our ever supportive vice chairman stepped in to deliver our chairman’s report. This was followed by a heartfelt and very informative talk by Kay Mackinnon, MacMillan Benefits Adviser. Kay presented an impressive narrative on her career path, the daily challenges and the amazing outcomes and we should all be very grateful for the work she does. So as not to make this post too long we will post some of the highlights of her talk in another post.
CHAIRMAN’S REPORT
Welcome to the Annual General Meeting of the Hebridean Mens Cancer Support Group. To the best of our knowledge, we remain the only men’s cancer support group. And we are most successful with over 30 men coming along every week to meet and talk. I am always astounded at the noise we collectively make. Indeed, earlier this year I asked Donnie to record the sound and post it on our Facebook page.
It has been another eventful year with over 100 men being registered to our group with around 80 coming along some of the time. All the 100 men we contact receive a monetary gift and information about the group and sources of support. That initial contact is universally well received, and we receive many letters of thanks. Recently we received a donation from a bereaved widow of a potential member who had been very pleased to receive our contact letter and despite the fact that he had died without ever coming to the group, she sent us a significant sum of money. We are fortunate that many people and organisations consider our group worthy of support, but our number one fundraiser is the annual raffle which this year raised the amazing total of £33,391. We are indebted to Donnie Morrison for all his work in managing this online. We are indebted for the hundreds of prizes offered to us by so many local firms and people and, of course, we are most grateful to all those who purchase tickets. Our fund raising is essential, but we are conscious that we must always seek to have a healthy balance. We learned the importance of that fundamental funding advice during the period of covid when fundraising was very difficult, but we continued to support men diagnosed with cancer. I wish to thank Ady Morrison and Jack Thorp for their diligent management of our finances. I wish to thank Don Maclean our Secretary and Vice Chair whose support to me is significant and a great comfort. He always has my back. I thank George who keeps our membership record and who has not had the best of health this year. I thank the remaining committee members Ian Minty, Malcolm Newton, Donnie Uist Macdonald, Norman Smith and DL Smith. Their commitment to this group is total and I am grateful to them for their commitment and dedication to our cause.
I should also like to thank those who clear away all our clutter each week and leave everything clean and tidy. It is important that we look after our location. We are fortunate to have these premises in which to meet.
We had yet another very successful Christmas lunch where we honour our partners and supporters. This year our guest speaker was Malcolm Burr, Chief Executive of Comhairle nan Eilean Siar who is coming to the end of his 21 years’ service to the people of the Western Isles. His speech was very well received.
Now I shall ask Ady to present the Annual Accounts which have been approved by our accountants. This year we have agreed to support Maggie’s in Inverness who look after our men very well when they are in Raigmore Hospital for treatment.
Thank you Ady. All committee members have indicated that they are happy to continue to serve.
Now I should like to introduce our guest speaker, Kay Mackinnon.
Kay is the Macmillan Benefits Officer. Her post came under threat, and we wrote in her support to Macmillan pointing out that last year there were 194 referrals for cancer sufferers and that Kay was instrumental in sourcing £1,000, 069 for them. We made our contribution to that sum. Without Kay, we would find it very difficult to contact men newly diagnosed with cancer. She is a very important part of our extended team. I can tell you that her job is secure for the next year but the contribution from Macmillan has been severely cut back; fortunately, in recognition of the important service that Kay provides, the Comhairle has found the resources to co-fund the post but only for this year at present. I should mention that Malcolm Newton conducted his own very persistent campaign in Kay’s defence. Thankyou Malcolm. It is my pleasure to invite Kay to address us.
Murdo Morrison, Anchorage, Tolsta
Murdo died at around 7am on Wednesday morning. He was comfortable in Bethesda with his family in attendance. I saw him in Bethesda just over a week ago and he was the Murdo I remember. He was a lovely man - very interesting and always interested. He was the first to arrive at our Friday afternoon sessions to chat initially with Don and I until just a few weeks ago when he became ill. He was a very talented craftsman, and he spoke very modestly and interestingly of projects he had been involved with over his lifetime. I loved to have a conversation with him. So many people told me in complimentary terms of his professional skills. He loved coming to our group and latterly when his eyesight was failing, he knew us by our voices and he loved the interaction. We are going to miss him - already a great many people have said that to me. We offer our most sincere condolences to his family who have always been the best of friends with our group. We will remember Murdo always.
We are making arrangements for the group to meet as usual on Friday ( it is our aim always to be there for men with cancer). Murdo’s funeral service is at 2.30pm on Friday 27 March in the Tolsta FP Church.
Angus McCormack, Chair HMCSG
