Council leader’s funding appeal for children’s hospice

Council leader Mike Connolly has urged all Bury residents to get behind the fund-raising appeal for the borough’s first children’s hospice.

Work has started to build Grace’s Place, which will provide palliative and end-of-life care for children living in Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Heywood and Middleton, at the site of the former Bury Hospice in Dumers Lane, Radcliffe.

It is hoped the hospice will be open by next autumn, but the project needs to raise £1 million to complete the job.

Grace’s Place will look after youngsters suffering from cancers, neurological and genetic illnesses and mental and physical disabilities. It has been named after two-year-old Grace Tinarwo from Rochdale, who has the chromosomal abnormality Patau Syndrome.

The hospice will be run as a partnership between Bury Hospice and Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust Partnership, which runs mental health and community health services across the borough.

Cllr Connolly attended the appeal launch with the Mayor of Bury, Cllr Sharon Briggs, and radio presenter Sara Cox.

He said: “It was my privilege to attend the launch of the £1m funding appeal. It will help children from Bury and the wider area access superb services at a time of great need or crisis.

“As a Bury man born and bred, I know how generous the people of this borough are. I will certainly be making a donation, and I know we will do all we can to get behind this appeal.”

To read more about the campaign, go to http://www.graces-place.org/

ENDS

Press release issued: 11 December 2013.

Picture attached: At the appeal launch are (from left) Councillor Mike Connolly, Sara Cox, and the Mayor of Bury, Councillor Sharon Briggs.