Zoe's Place issue update as fight to save hospice continues
Zoe's Place baby hospice is "not there yet" but is "heading rapidly in the right direction", according to the hospice's head of fundraising, who is helping spearhead the campaign to save the much-loved facility in West Derby. Zoe's Place needs a new home as the lease on its current site runs out next year.
The charity needs £5 million to build a new facility that will mean it can stay in the city. With plans to close the site already underway, we only have until November 9 to save it. Head of Fundraising Matt Meaney sat down with the ECHO yesterday and gave us a frank update on where the hospice is at in terms of funding and what more needs to be done to save it.
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Matt told the ECHO: "Let's not be under any illusions. It's an enormous challenge - £5 million in the space of 30 days is a huge amount and we're not there yet, but we're in a far more positive position than we were a week ago.
"A week ago, we were resigned to the fact that we were closing, people were going to lose their jobs, and families weren't going to have access to our services. I think anybody would have to say there's considerably more hope now than there was then."
Since the news broke about the hospice closing, people from across Liverpool and beyond have been pulling out all the stops to try and raise the money that Zoe's Place needs to remain in the city. "I don't believe that any other city or city region could do this," said Matt. "It's a Liverpool way of life to look after our own and fix these problems as a community."
He added: "The support has been something none of us have ever experienced. I've worked in the charity sector for 20 years and I've never seen anything like this. Inundated doesn't do it justice.
"I can't keep up with all the activities going on. There are thousands of activities happening. As a team we aren't equipped to be able to deal administratively with the volume of donations at the speed they're coming in. It's going at an incredible pace.
"In addition to what you see on the Just Giving page, there's stuff coming in that hasn't been reflected there - money that comes in through the bank or through cash or cheques doesn't go through there straightaway."
For this reason, Matt is unable to give a figure on how much money has been raised, and how much more the hospice needs to gather in the coming days and weeks. He added: "We're conscious the public is invested in this financially and emotionally, so we want to provide an accurate figure. We're working on that. Watch this space for the total very soon."
Matt also told us about the plans for the hospice should sufficient funds be raised in time. "Our plan at the moment is to try to carry on with the original plans that we had planning consent for back in September," he explained.
"That's our absolute primary goal at the moment. And there are conversations happening between our board of trustees and architects and Ian Byrne, our local MP who are all talking to try to remove as many of the hurdles as possible."
"So as it stands right now, the A1 plan is if we can overcome some of the technical hurdles we've had from a construction point of view, and if we can raise the £5 million in that 30 day period, we can go ahead with our original plans, which would mean we would end up with a hospice that is state of the art."