A CHANCE to remember lost loved ones and absent friends is being given to people across Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale thanks to local hospices.

Pendleside and Rossendale hospices are asking for dedications to their annual Light Up A Life appeals as Christmas approaches.

Last year the Pendleside appeal collect a record-breaking £103,730 with more than 8,200 people remembered by loved ones, and Rossendale collected more than £4,800.

And supporters of the Reedley and Rawtenstall institutions are hoping to surpass previous efforts for 2012.

This year the switch-on service for Pendleside’s Light Up A Life tree will be at their Colne Road headquarters on Sunday, December 16.

Charity officials have also asked bakers to prepare batches on mince pies for the ceremony. The tree has been donated again by funeral directors Alderson and Horan.

Each of the names put forward will also be featured in a Book of Remembrance later.

Meanwhile dedications for Rossendale’s effort must be received at their officers, at New Cribden House, in the Rossendale Primary Care Centre in Bacup Road, before December 7.

Their showpiece event will be a candelit open service at St Nicholas Church in Waterfoot on December 16, led by lay preacher Steve Crook.

Hospice fundraising manager Sam Morris said: “The service will be open to people of any denomination.”

The respective hospice campaigns are each important parts of their fundraising calendars.

People can find out more about the individual events by going online to www.pendleside.org.uk, and www.rossendalehospice.org.uk