A WREXHAM hospice is appealing to the public to help it continue to provide free patient care for cancer patients and those with other life-limiting illnesses living in North East Wales and border counties.

Nightingale House Hospice in Wrexham is encouraging more people to come forward and join its weekly hospice lottery to inject much-needed cash into providing vital services for patients with chronic diseases. These include cancer, motor neurone disease and heart failure - patients of which need support and advice to enhance their quality of life, from holistic treatments to pain management and on-going assessments.

For £1 a week you will be automatically allocated a unique, six digit lottery number - which remains your set of numbers that you play with for as long as you want to remain in the draw.

Any prize cheques you win are issued and posted directly to you, so there’s no need for you to do anything – your prize will just arrive at your door.

The hospice continues to improve its services and introduced a new direct referral service during the first lockdown. It also operates a 24/7 helpline for patients and their families who need support and guidance.

As 80 per cent of the hospice’s services are funded by donations and fundraising activities the Nightingale House weekly lottery is a major lifeline for generating income.

This week’s announcement on an all-Wales lockdown until November 9 means all our Welsh retail outlets and cafes will close once again making our situation ever more precarious.

Whilst the hospice was allocated a share of government funds to assist until previous income streams could be restored it did not receive all the funds as promised.

It is currently unclear what further financial support will be allocated to independent hospices in Wales during this latest national lockdown.

All face to face fundraising activities have either been abandoned or taken online due to the Covid-19 pandemic and as a result the lottery has become a beacon of hope for the hospice.

Thanks to the generosity of almost 16,000 people who have already signed up - the hospice lottery raised £535k in 2019.

But it costs £3.4m per year to run Nightingale House Hospice.

2020 was supposed to be a year for the community to join in and celebrate 25 years of providing high quality day services and inpatient services but sadly these have all had to either be postponed or re-arranged to a future date.

For more information and how to register for Nightingale House's weekly lottery, visit https://www.nightingalehouse.co.uk/lottery/ or call 01978 316 800.