Children’s hospice charity Zoe’s Place has received a £2.5m donation from Liverpool-based retailer Home Bargains, as its service in the city faces potential closure.
Earlier this month, the charity announced that its Liverpool hospice would close at the end of 2024, nine months before its lease for the site ends, leaving it with “insufficient time and money to relocate to a new home elsewhere”.
Zoe’s Place, which also operates hospices in Middlesbrough and Coventry, then launched a fundraising campaign to raise £5m by 9 November to fund a new site in Liverpool.
This week, it announced that Home Bargains had pledged £2.5m to its campaign, covering half the funding target.
Joan Stainsby, executive trustee of Zoe’s Place, said: “This generous commitment reflects the overwhelming support we are receiving from the Liverpool community and beyond.
“We are immensely grateful to Home Bargains for standing with us in our time of need.”
Independent MP Ian Byrne has also backed the campaign and met the charity to discuss its plans for a new site.
The charity’s fundraising total on JustGiving has now exceeded £5m but the page says this includes money raised since before the potential closure announcement and around £3.8m of pledged, restricted funding.
Plan for new charity
Zoe’s Place reportedly plans to launch a separate charity to run the new Liverpool site in a bid to make businesses more confident to support it financially.
Byrne told the BBC last week that setting up a Liverpool charity was the “right way forward” to ensure the longevity of the service that was needed.
He said: “It’s a charity we are going to create, based in Liverpool and for Liverpool.
“The aim is an absolute focus on Zoe’s Liverpool. Zoe’s Place is an unbelievably remarkable charity.”
Byrne has reportedly written to chancellor Rachel Reeves about Zoe’s Place and the future of other children’s hospices.
