Zoe's Place hospice 'confident' it can be saved

Zoe's Place baby hospice has said it is "really confident" it will be able to find a way of saving its Liverpool site.

The charity announced the unit, in West Derby, would close at the end of the year because plans to build a new hospice on a bowling green had fallen through.

The news sparked an enormous response with the public, politicians, businesses and celebrities, whose donations have totalled £1.7m.

Ian Byrne, the independent MP for West Derby, said a meeting to discuss options with Zoe's Place trustees had been "really positive".

Mr Byrne told BBC Radio Merseyside: "We're going to have a further meeting on Monday with the designated builder and then hopefully at the end of the four weeks, once we've got the pledges in place, we can buy the land and begin the build, and then begin that process of making sure that Zoe's Place Liverpool has got a long-term future.”

The charity said it needed to raise more than £5m in the next 30 days to keep a hospice in Liverpool.

Since the closure was announced, Liverpool based sportswear firm Montirex donated more than £100,000, while Hot Water Comedy Club contributed over £17,000.

Aimee Clare, capital lead officer at Zoe’s Place, said donations on the crowdfunding website JustGiving had been "going up and up" every time she refreshed the page.

She said: "We're so hopeful that we can either raise the money and have it in the bank or that we can have some pledges that are real secure pledges that can give us the confidence to move forward.

"We are so confident that we can do this."

Zoe's Place lease on its site in Yew Tree Lane expires in June 2025.

The Catholic order the Institute Of The Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, which owns the building, said its "ageing community" and "greatly reduced number of sisters" meant it had to leave the site and would be pressing ahead with a sale next year.

Zoe's Place also said the cost of building a new hospice had spiralled from the original estimate of £3.5m to in excess of £5m.

Mr Byrne said the issue of whether state funding should be given for hospice care needed to be looked at.

Currently, hospice care is not provided by the NHS or funded by central government.

Mr Byrne said: "There’s got to be an acknowledgement of how important these places are and, in a society, how do make sure these places are funded so we don’t have these sorts of issues."

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