Cheshire Hospice made redundancies to bridge shortfall of £1 million

A hospice has made an urgent plea after it revealed it will have a funding shortfall of around £1 million before the end of the year.

East Cheshire Hospice says despite getting huge support from the local community it may still be struggling to operate.

The charity, in Macclesfield, has been unable to hold large-scale fundraising events which has resulted in a loss of its income.

As the pandemic hit all 675 volunteers were stood down, now only around 50 are back, including a newly-created family liaison role supporting visitors with PPE rules.

Karyn Johnston, the Hospice's Chief Executive, said: "We're an organisation that operates in the extra mile zone so you can imagine how difficult it's been for our front-line staff dealing with the present danger of spreading the disease but also turning to heartbroken family members and saying 'no I'm sorry you can't come in today.'

"That's where the mental health of our team has been really challenged - for a team that's used to operating in the extra mile not being able to get there has been awful for them."

She added that the hospice is now preparing for a third wave of Covid-19, which is piling further pressure on the charity's stretched resources.

She said: "January and February is always a stressful time for us anyway because there are usually respiratory illnesses around then.

"We expect it to be much worse this year but there's hope that by the end of March our frontline staff will be vaccinated. That'd be a huge step forward for us and very re-assuring."