THEY did it! Everyone at St Clare Hospice is absolutely thrilled to announce that they have won our £49,832 grant from the People’s Millions.

ITV reporter Kate Prout returned to the Hastingwood-based Hospice to surprise staff, patients and volunteers with the good news this afternoon – and present a giant cheque to St Clare Chief Executive Tanya Curry and Director of Fundraising and Marketing Elizabeth Palfreman.

Tanya said: “We are ecstatic to have won this incredible £50,000 from the Big Lottery so we can at last turn our vision for our ‘Space to Breathe’ family garden into a reality.

“This project simply would not be possible without this vital funding and it will make such a difference to the people we care for at the Hospice. To be able to give our patients and their loved ones a beautiful secluded outdoor haven to relax and spend time together has been on our wish-list for a long time and we are thrilled we can finally make it happen.”

She added: “We received such amazing support from our community on voting day and the messages we received from people were truly inspiring, with some people telling us they had voted 40 or 50 times!

“The public’s support has been invaluable and we would like to say a huge thank you to each and every person who took the time to pick up the phone and vote for the Hospice. We are over the moon!”

The Big Lottery funding will be spent on transforming an overgrown area of our grounds near to our Inpatient Unit into a tranquil oasis.

The ‘Space to Breathe’ garden, which has been designed by Stansted-based landscape architects Liz Lake Associates, will include a calming water feature, decorative planting and pots that gently glow to give the effect of candlelight among other features.

We hope to get work underway in the spring for completion by the end of next year.