A STRIKING sculpture of a flying blueberry pie was unveiled outside a cancer charity’s Oxford centre.

The piece, titled ‘Blueberry Pie à la Mode, Flying, Scale A’, was officially revealed outside the Maggie’s Centre, in Old Road, Oxford, on Wednesday by chief executive of the charity, Laura Lee.

The work was produced in 1996 by American artist Claes Oldenburg and his wife Coosje van Bruggen, who died of breast cancer in 2009.

The sculpture was donated by Morton Sosland, a family friend of Mr Oldenburg, who has been working with Maggie’s for five years to bring the sculpture to Oxford, where it has now finally been placed in memory of Mrs van Bruggen.

Ms Lee said: “It has been such an honour for Maggie’s Oxford to have been chosen to receive this unique Oldenburg and van Bruggen sculpture from Mr Sosland and his family.

“The joyful design fits perfectly with Maggie Keswick Jencks’s [who established the charity] hope for people with cancer not to lose the joy of living in the fear of dying.

“I hope that visitors to Maggie’s Oxford get as much pleasure from seeing ‘Blueberry Pie à la Mode, Flying, Scale A’ as I have.”

Mr Odenburg and Mrs van Bruggen’s daughter, Maartje, said she and her father had originally considered the sculpture for the centre in Oxford.

The original concept for the sculpture arose when Mr Odenburg drew a picture of a flying blueberry pie for his wife in a London hotel room for her birthday.

Maggie’s offers free support to people with cancer as well as their family and friends in specially designed centres. Centre visitors can access advice from a team of professional staff.

Maggie’s Oxford is one of 19 centres in the UK and abroad.

Designed by the architects Wilkinson Eyre, to complement its wooded location, Maggie’s Oxford Centre is based on a treehouse supported by stilts.