Lottery criticised for ignoring needs of childrens' hospices


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While adult hospices receive 30% of their funding from the government, childrens' hospices are eligible only for a mere 4%. This puts them under considerable pressure to elicit voluntary donations from any source possible. Applications for lottery funding appear to fall on stony ground - as illustrated by Kent-based Demelza House Hospice which has proved an invaluable source of support to over 600 families with terminally ill children in Kent, Surrey and East Sussex.

The hospice has attempted to apply for financial help on several occasions and was in fact were successful in obtaining a certain amount of funding a few years ago in order to construct a new building. The trouble is they now urgently need a further £5 million in order to be able to staff it with the necessary medical personnel. Says Dr Adrian Hall who works at the hospice, 'It's vital we get the five million we need to offer a full service.'

Small wonder that the £600 million lottery funds awarded to the beleaguered Millennium Dome has caused such controversy - such a sum would be sufficient to keep all the UK's children hospices running for the next 15 years.

According to a spokeswoman at the Department for Culture, into whose remit the Lottery falls, the government is promising that 'new initiatives' will mean more funding might be able to be awarded to children's hospices in future. Such a move is long overdue, given that there are some 20,000 terminally ill children in the UK today.

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