CHRISTMAS has come early for one St Helens charity after it received a much-needed cash injection just days before the holidays.

Willowbrook Hospice was our chosen charity in this year’s Cash for Charities campaign, where our parent company The Gannett Foundation was giving out £128,000 to support charities across the country.

The north west share of £16,000 was split between ten local charities and after counting readers’ votes, the hospice, which celebrated its 25th birthday this year, was awarded £3,958.82

The grant award will provide the hospice with ten new replacement camp beds, which will allow family members and friends to stay in patients’ room, providing essential care, help and support.

The hospice has nine bedrooms for patients with a 10th room currently being renovated which specialist equipment and every room will now have an extra camp bed.

The upgraded camp beds will be in all patients rooms for friends and family to use if they need to stay at the hospice

The upgraded camp beds will be in all patients' rooms for friends and family to use if they need to stay at the hospice

It’s thanks to the support from the local community that the charity has received the welcome cash injection so close to Christmas.

Alun Owen, executive corporate director, said: “The hospice was built in 1997 and has marked its 25th anniversary this year.

“One of the rooms was built for three patients, which now needs to be upgraded with specialist equipment so that one patient can use the facilities.

“People often don’t realise the importance of love and support and allowing friends and family to provide it whenever patients need it, it vital.

“The camp beds we’ve been able to buy, thanks to the funding award from the Cash for Charities campaign, will mean patients can receive all the support they need from friends and family 24 hours a day.

“This wouldn’t have been possible without the St Helens Star readers taking time to nominate Willowbrook Hospice and then cast their votes to secure funding.

“At Willowbrook, we are committed to improving facilities and generating more income so that patients can continue to benefit from the high levels of care we provide.”

He added: “Although we receive just under a third of our funding from the NHS, we still need to rely heavily on the local community, who support us by visiting our shops, entering our lottery and taking part in our varied events and appeals.

“None of what we do would be possible if it wasn’t for our amazing volunteers who support us by plugging the gaps, and staffing our receptions, shops and clinical services to help make sure we can run our services and other events each year.

“Our community of volunteers and supporters recognise the needs of people across St Helens and Knowsley and make sure we can deliver our much-needed specialist palliative services, free of charge to everyone that needs it.”