Sir Robert Ogden's philanthropy with Macmillan and more leaves a lasting legacy - Yorkshire Post Letters

WE are deeply saddened to learn of the death of our great supporter Sir Robert Ogden CBE Hon LLD (The Yorkshire Post, March 9 and 10).

Sir Robert’s exceptional commitment and support for cancer patients in Yorkshire is unsurpassed and he remains our largest individual donor.

Sir Robert has supported Macmillan for more than 50 years, from his early involvement in Macmillan’s York Raceday (which has since raised £9m), to the funding and development of three state-of-the-art cancer centres, Sir Robert has played a leading role in transforming cancer care in Yorkshire.

Opening in 2000, the Sir Robert Ogden Macmillan Centre in Leeds was the first of three cancer centres he supported and was the first of its kind in Yorkshire, pioneering a new approach that gave people with cancer personalised support in an exceptional care environment.

His vision, commitment and generous gift of £850,000 was integral to bringing the centre to fruition.

From this successful blueprint for quality cancer care, we worked together to develop two further £10m centres of excellence in Harrogate in 2014, and Northallerton in 2018.

These state-of-the-art centres were made possible thanks to incredible contributions from Sir Robert. At both Harrogate and Northallerton, in addition to financial support, Sir Robert and Lady Ogden also played a significant role in the design of the centre’s internal environment, always thinking of patients’ needs, and offering their time and design expertise.

Our sincere condolences from everyone at Macmillan go to Sir Robert’s wife, Lady Ogden, and family. His generosity, dedication and expertise helped us to transform the quality of cancer care across Yorkshire.

He has created a lasting legacy, not only in the cancer centres that bear his name, but also in the life changing improved care and support for people with cancer across the county for years to come.

From Lord Blunkett, Sheffield.

SIR Robert Ogden was not only someone I admired greatly for his philanthropy but also my friend, and that of my family.

It is rare that the actions of an individual can influence, never mind change, government policy. But Robert did.

His philanthropic investment in bursaries for young people in the South Yorkshire coalfield, linked to an agreement with the then-Vice Chancellor of Leeds University for access to undergraduate programmes, was an outstanding example.

Having learned about and worked with Robert on this, I then got agreement at the time I was Education and Employment Secretary with Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, to introduce Education Maintenance Allowances, which assisted so many youngsters to stay on in post-16 school and college, and to liberate their talent.

This, along with so many other investments in special-needs schooling, in hospital provision, and in his work in climate change through tree-planting programmes in South America, is a lasting legacy to a quiet man who never paraded his charitable works, but will probably be remembered most for his love of horse-racing and his wise decision never to bet on a horse.