Put Your Foot In It
Launched by The Northern Echo and the Butterwick Hospice, Put Your Foot In It aims to raise £750,000 to build a new centre.
£750,000 target for hospice campaign
A CAMPAIGN has been launched to raise £750,000 for a new hospice building in the region.
The Northern Echo and Butterwick Hospice yesterday launched the Put Your Foot In It campaign, which calls on businesses and individuals to help raise much-needed money for a two-storey building on Teesside.
The fundraising initiative will enable Butterwick Hospice, in Stockton, to offer more care to patients and their families.
The building will stretch across 5,400sq ft over two floors, providing more counselling rooms for adults and a play area for work with children.
More individual therapy rooms will be created, along with a large area for group therapy sessions.
The larger area will also double as an education room to enable hospice staff to share their expertise with other care providers.
Although planning permission has been granted, the hospice cannot start building work until the £750,000 is in the bank.
Yesterday, three people, including The Northern Echo's editor, Peter Barron, put their feet into plaster to add their support to the campaign.
He was joined by Stuart Booth, the general manager of Mecca Bingo, in Hartlepool, and Rachel Loynes, financial services advisor with Carterbar, in Billingham, near Stockton, both of which are backing the campaign.
The preserved footprints will form part of the landscaping around the building.
Mr Barron said: "From a Northern Echo point of view, we have been involved with the Butterwick Hospice ever since the children's unit was started up ten years ago.
"We are proud to be associated with the Butterwick and we just want to keep that going. Yesterday was a really important day and we are glad to be supporting this latest extension."
Trevor Newlove, the appeals manager for Butterwick Hospice, said: "We want to start the building by the end of this year because we have to have it open by July 2009."
In its first year, the hospice provided more than 200 complementary therapy treatments.
Last year, it provided almost 4,000 treatments.
Mr Newlove said: "It is our desire to build on the success that we have had over the years to provide more support to the people we serve.
"The idea of the campaign is to build a specialist family support and complementary care unit, which will offer dedicated space for family support and complementary therapies, as well as offering specialist facilities and offering counselling support to children who go through an awful lot when they find a loved one is dying."
The campaign asks individuals and companies to put a square foot of space into the new building.
That square foot will carry the name of the person or business that sponsored it on a roll of honour on the Put Your Foot In It website.
The roll of honour will also be put in the new building's reception.
To support the campaign, visit www. putyourfootinit. org. uk.
The cost of each square foot is £100. Donations can be made securely online or on 01642-607742.
1:39pm Thursday 24th January 2008
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