ONCE again, willing East Lancashire fund-raisers have excelled themselves.

Defying tiredness and blisters, they ran, jogged or walked the East Lancashire Hospice Raring to Glow event, some finishing in the early hours.

Their efforts are expected to raise £37,000 for the hospice which needs to raise more than £9,500 every day just to continue what it does, not accounting for anything extra or emergency funds.

That’s £3.5million to carrying on caring for the people of Blackburn, Darwen, Hyndburn and the Ribble Valley.

Last weekend, it was the turn of Pendleside Hospice which benefitted hugely from the Pennine 10k event. It needs a similar amount every year to carry out its fantastic work.

A grant from the NHS Clinical Commissioning Group provides approximately 26% of running costs but the balance, over £2.8 million, is raised locally. It is still a travesty that hospices, along with our air ambulances, are mainly run by volunteers and from donations.

The free care they provide means thousands of people are made more comfortable and their families can take a well-deserved break.

It all takes huge pressure off the health service and should be recognised with more statutory support.