THE Northern Echo's association with the Butterwick hospice movement in the North-East is a proud one.

Following the death of the Princess of Wales, we launched a campaign in Diana's memory to complete the building of the region's first hospice for children.

Our readers helped raise £500,000 in one of the most moving responses to an appeal in the paper's long history. The children's hospice opened in 1998 and it is a truly inspiring place.

But, of course, the story did not end there. There was still the need to make the hospice fully operational and to meet the annual running costs.

It is our great pleasure today to carry the news on our front page that £1.2m of Lottery money means that the dream of a full-time hospice service is now a reality.

The announcement also means that specialists will be available to run "day hospices" at community hospitals, further spreading the priceless work of the Butterwick team.

We congratulate those who have worked so hard to provide such a special service - not least Mary Butterwick who famously sold her own home to sow the seeds.

Coming so soon after she was awarded the OBE in the New Year Honours, it is splendid news indeed.

China crisis

for Gazza

IT is hard to escape the feeling that the Paul Gascoigne story is destined to have an unhappy ending.

Embarking on an undignified scramble to find a footballing home anywhere in the world - ending up in the Chinese Second Division - is not how it should be.

Great footballers, like great boxers, should know when the time has come to bow out with their pride intact.

For all his faults, Paul Gascoigne should be remembered for his rare talent, not for selling himself short in some obscure corner of the world.

We wish him well and sincerely hope that our sense of doom proves to be misplaced.