THE fund-raising programme for the new state-of-the-art Kemp Hospice is under way.

As exclusively revealed by the Shuttle/Times and News, the Kidderminster centre is to be replaced with a £2.2 million purpose-built hospice. It will contain a five-bed unit to cater for patients requiring palliative and respite care, as well as their families who may wish to stay overnight.

Campaign manager John Fletcher said £1 million had to be raised before the fund-raising projects opened to the public, but he was confident this could be achieved with the help of trusts, Lottery funding and donations from businesses.

Officials hope the new hospice, which will continue to care for people with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses and provide a 50 per cent increase in day care places from 12 to 18, will be completed by 2003.

Mr Fletcher said: "This is a massive task but definitely achievable. There are hundreds of organisations which can help us and we need to get these on board before we go public.

"We are very confident Wyre Forest folk will take part in the activities we organise but from my experience you need the 40 per cent chunk raised first."

The ground floor of the new unit will include therapy and physiotherapy facilities, a chapel and day and visitors rooms.

The first floor will be a non-patient area including community and Macmillan nurses rooms and a large meeting room which Mr Fletcher hopes businesses and health groups will hire out for personal use to raise funds for the hospice.

Kemp currently owns three properties on Sutton Park Road but the administration block is separated from the hospice by a vacant house.

The new plans will see the office building demolished and replaced with a two-storey building to include 23 car parking spaces and an ambulance drop-off area. The bed unit will be part of the same complex but separated by a corridor area.

Mr Fletcher is driven by personal ambitions having lost his only brother to pancreatic cancer and subsequently spending 12 years in the charity fund-raising profession.

He added: "Many of the 100,000 people living in and around the Wyre Forest and Tenbury Wells area will be involved in some sort of fund-raising activity. If 25 per cent of them each donated £25, we would have well over £500,000 in the bank.

"In the next year or so we will stage quiz and karaoke nights, parachute jumps and abseils, and will probably begin a buy-a-brick campaign for the new hospice too.

"We are writing to clubs and sport groups to see if they will bear us in mind in the next couple of years."

Individuals and businesses who would like a fund-raising pack full of cash-filled ideas can call Kemp's fund-raising office on 01562 865105.