FUND-RAISERS at East Lancashire Hospice are asking for lots of support over the next year as they try to reach a new bigger target.

They have to raise £400,000 -- £100,000 more than last year -- and are calling on businesses, schools, community groups and any charitable members of the public to help them achieve the task.

Stuart Andrew, head of fund-raising at the hospice, which cares for people with life-threatening illnesses across Blackburn, Darwen, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley, said it was vitally important to raise the cash so the hospice could carry on providing its ever-expanding range of services.

He said: "Since we reopened in 2002 after a £2million refurbishment, we've been providing care to more and more patients. In day care, for example, we used to treat a few dozen but now it's more like 100 a week.

"Our facilities have improved across the board and beyond belief. But we need a lot of help from local people to make sure we can continue the good work. Every penny donated to us is gratefully received and helps us to continue our help for others and their carers and families."

An in-house lottery, launched in April, hopes to raise around £120,000 of the annual running costs but Stuart said a lot of hard work was still needed with general fund-raising to make ends meet.

A number of initiatives have been planned over the coming months including a yellow-themed Summer Fair on June 28, a fun run pencilled in for Witton Park on August 9 and the hospice's annual ball at Ewood Park on September 13.

Stuart said he was also calling on anyone in the Blackburn, Darwen, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley areas who would be interested in setting up a fund-raising 'Friends of the Hospice' group.

The hospice on Park Lee Road has been open since the early 1980s but in 1999 the trustees of the hospice launched an appeal to raise £1.3 million to build a new day therapy centre which would be linked and attached to the existing hospice, and committed themselves to refurbish the original building. This became necessary after years of expansion and an increasing service meant that the original facilities had become over stretched and under resourced.

Any firms, community groups, schools or individuals interested in helping the hospice over the coming year should contact Stuart Andrew on 01254 660900.