Marie Curie Cancer Care has officially opened its new national support centre in Pontypool, Wales, creating 140 new jobs in the process.

The centre will be the charity’s UK-wide hub for fundraising, volunteering and nursing management and operations. It sits within a larger, rented building that also houses various NHS organisations.

Previously, responsibility for fundraising and nursing support was spread all over the UK and often formed part of people’s jobs, said a spokeswoman for the charity. The impetus for centralising administrative tasks in the centre was to free up nursing managers to allow them to focus on the clinical side.

A spokeswoman said the charity had had a referral centre in Pontypool for many years, and decided to site the national support centre in the town because it was renowned for having a local workforce with wide experience in call centre work and strong administrative and support skills. 

As well as creating 140 new jobs, the centre also boasts 37 regular volunteers.  It has four departments: the nursing referral centre which co-ordinates patient care; the nursing support centre providing management and support to more than 2,000 Marie Curie Nurses; the volunteering centre and the fundraising support centre.

The charity’s chief executive, Thomas Hughes-Hallett, said: “Demand for our services continues to grow and so centralising the charity’s administrative operations in this way means our frontline staff are freed up to focus on their core work…clinical nursing managers are able to devote more time to the co-ordination and care needs of patients and their families.”

The centre was officially opened by Wales’ First Minister, Carwyn Jones (pictured).