I'M delighted to hear that hospices will be receiving as much in NHS cash as they get from charity fund raising within three to four years -- according to Health Secretary Alan Milburn.

Why wait so long? They play a crucial part in the lives of terminally ill patients and their families.

The movement shouldn't have to depend on fund raising.

I hear nothing but praise for Wigan and Leigh's Hindley-based hospice from families whose dying relatives have spend their last days there. They tell me it's like a five star hotel.

The Friends of the Hospice have to raise £1.5 million a year to keep it alive -- that's 70 per cent of the annual costs. Only 30 per cent comes from from the Wigan and Leigh Health Services Trust.

It's good to learn too that Leigh and Wigan businesses are helping towards reducing the hospice's £1.5 mortgage. One hundred and three of them -- including the Leigh Journal -- have now joined the Business Support Group which donates to reducing the millstone round the hospice's neck.

Hospices are now crucial elements in cancer care and should be at the forefront of funding, not depending on volunteers putting their heads together to come up with new ideas to raise the much needed cash.