How a community came together to raise £6.4m to save Zoe's Place

ITV Granada Reports Zoe Muldoon spent the day with staff and parents as they hit the target to save the hospice

It was a near-impossible target, but Zoe's Place has raised the funds needed to keep the doors open.

The specialist baby hospice, which has been open for 30 years, had hoped to build a new £3.5m hospice in Liverpool before its original lease expired.

As the cost of living crisis bit and prices rose, the hospice couldn't keep up fundraising efforts and on the 7 October, trustees released a statement saying they would have to close at the end of the year.

Zoe's Place has provided palliative and end-of-life care for children up to five-years-old for decades, they set a target to raise £5m in 30 days.

The community of Liverpool came out to support and give what they could, from school children giving their pocket money to businesses handing over millions.

It's been a non-stop dash to the Finnish line to raise the 6.4 million pounds that the hospice needs overall to stay open.

Here are just some ways that people raised money:

A group of hikers all in fancy dress trekked for more than seven hours from Ellesmere Port in Cheshire to Zoe's Place in Liverpool to raise money.

The high-street retailer Home Bargains has pledged £2.5 million to the campaign, the retailer had previously committed to funding vital elements of the new hospice, including an on-site hydrotherapy pool designed to provide comfort and relief to children with various health conditions.

John Bishop, Jason Manford and Russell Kane were a part of the line-up for a comedy show fundraiser. The sold-out show was at the Hot Water Comedy Club at Blackstock Market and was live-streamed globally on the Hot Water Comedy YouTube channel.

John said: "It's a hospice for children, you don't need to know anything else... it's a place where families at the worst possible moment you can imagine have got somewhere safe to go with people who know what they are going through."

UFC stars Molly McCann and Paddy Pimblett, both from Liverpool, joined forces for a fundraising run to help raise money and awareness of the hospice's plight. Local comedians Paul Smith and Adam Rowe were also among the runners.

Passengers on the Merseyrail network have been donating "A Pound for Zoe's Place" when buying tickets in the latest push to save a vital children's hospice.

Over the last month, 90,000 daily customers have been prompted to donate.

What happens next?

A new charity is being set up to take on the responsibility for the hospice provision in the future and it will now begin the process of building the new site for Zoe's Place.

The charity will work with the trustees of Zoe's Place Trust to ensure that all necessary steps are taken to transferarrangements so that this new charity has the resources raised from the fundraising campaign to build and operate the new facility.

Between now and then, Zoe's Place Trust will work with the new charity so that the existing hospice is able to continue to provide essential care until the date of transfer.