Ackland backs hospice appeal

Ackland backs hospice appeal

The hospice unit will provide round-the-clock care

Actor Joss Ackland has launched a £500,000 appeal to help extend a North Devon Hospice.

The cash is needed to pay for a £2.2m development which will allow patients to stay overnight.

Unlike most terminally-ill patients, those in north Devon do not have easy access to a hospice with overnight accommodation.

As part of the campaign, a searchlight has been switched on to illuminating the night skies above the hospice.

Mr Ackland's late wife Rosemary, who suffered from motor neurone disease, was helped at home by the hospice.

Calmer atmosphere

He said: "We were lucky and an awful lot of people aren't lucky.

"It is vital that this is completed soon and that people have a chance to go somewhere."

Hospice nurse John Fletcher-Cullum, said: "When patients are diagnosed at the moment they have to go into an acute hospital ward where everything is rushed.

"It is much better for them to be in a calmer atmosphere, which is what you get in a hospice.

"We need the beds in north Devon to give people that quality of care."

The hospice was founded in 1981 and has been at the current site for the last 10 years.

Charitable trusts have already provided £1.7m towards the £2.2m cost of the unit.

The six-bed development will be a partnership between the hospice, North Devon Primary Care Trust and Macmillan Cancer Relief.

The hospice is hoping the new unit will be open by next summer.