Wigan and Leigh Hospice faces £1m deficit after drop in donations

Cancer patient Paul Crook, who has stayed at the hospice twice, said it was "an amazing place"

A hospice will have to cut some of its services in the next year if it does not get funding to cover a £1m deficit, its chief executive has said.

Jo Carby said Wigan and Leigh Hospice costs £18,500 a day to run, two-thirds of which was raised by donations.

She said donations had dropped and the hospice, which cares for 14 patients on site and 900 others in the community, was in a "really desperate" situation.

"We can't afford to spend the same next year as we have this year," she said.

Ms Carby said the hospice received a third of its £6.77m budget for 2023/24 from the NHS, but the remainder came from donations.

"This means we have to raise £4m ourselves, which is £12,000 a day," she said.

"[That] is an awesome amount of money to raise."

Ms Carby said the reduction in donations meant the hospice cannot afford "to spend the same next year as we have this year"

She said the hospice was "well supported by the community, but it is a community with high levels of deprivation and people find it harder to give to charities."

She said the reduction in donations meant the hospice cannot afford "to spend the same next year as we have this year".

"If we don't get more income... we will have to look at which service would be curtailed, because we can't afford the current services with the income we are receiving."

Cancer patient Paul Crook, who has stayed at the hospice twice, said it was important for him and others in similar situations.

"It's an amazing place," the 51-year-old said.

"We daren't have these hospices closing down.

"They are essential to the people who are in there."

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