A NEW £300,000 appeal for East Lancashire Hospice is to be launched as part of special ceremony this week.

It is hoped the event on Friday, which includes the unveiling of a commemorative stone at noon at the state-of-the-art hospice building in Park Lee Road, Blackburn, will become an annual appeal for the charity.

Local people spent two years raising the £1.3 million needed to build the hospice -- but appeal organisers said that was just the start.

The hospice now needs to raise £300,000 a year to cover the running costs and there is another open day next Saturday from 10.30am till 3pm, to let people look around the facility.

The new building more than doubled the size of the hospice and will made it one of the best facilities in the north west. It was handed over to management in November, but patients were moved in after the Christmas and New Year period.

The hospice, which deals with adult patients, will still have ten in-patient beds, but will have improved accommodation for relatives and expanded day care facilities which will be able to care for more than 100 patients a week, compared with around 25 at the moment.

Anybody who can help with the fund-raising should call the appeals office on 01254 660 900.