FUNDRAISERS were celebrating last night after the region's first children's hospice received a massive National Lottery cash boost.

The £1.2m grant over three years is the final piece in the financial jigsaw that will enable the Butterwick Children's Hospice - built after readers of The Northern Echo helped raise £500,000 - to throw open its doors full time.

Since the hospice was launched in 1998, cash constraints have meant it has been able to use only two of the four beds.

The Lottery cash will mean all the residential beds can be used to look after poorly youngsters and meet the demand for respite and palliative care from the region's families.

The Butterwick organisation has hospices for adults in Stockton and Bishop Auckland, County Durham, as well as the children's hospice in Stockton.

And the extra cash will not only allow the expansion of the children's hospice, but give a major boost to adult care in rural areas.

Of the £1.2m grant, £775,000 is being given over three years to expand its palliative home care team which supports patients and carers in their homes in the Sedgefield area, Wear Valley and Teesdale.

It will also allow Butterwick specialists based at Bishop Auckland to travel to community hospitals in Stanhope, Barnard Castle and Sedgefield and run so-called "day hospices" for local people who might otherwise find it difficult to get to the nearest big town with a hospice.

Confirmation by the New Opportunities Fund (NOF) that it has decided to award £1,210,171 to Butterwick Hospice Care was hailed as "wonderful news" by the hospice founder, Mary Butterwick.

"Coming after my OBE in the New Year this is really tremendous," said a delighted Mary, 79, who sold her home to found the region's first hospice in 1988.

Graham Leggatt-Chidgey, Butterwick Hospice Care's chief executive, said: "This is very significant for us.

"Not only will it allow us to increase children's services by 50 per cent, it is also very significant on the adult side."

But he stressed that the Butterwick hospice movement still needed to raise £1.2m a year for running costs.

But there was no such good news for fundraisers hoping to build the region's first hospice for babies.

Officials behind the Zoe's Place Hospice for Special Babies, which was due to open within the next two months on Teesside, had hoped to be awarded £500,000, but they were turned down.

General manager Mark Guidery said: "This will certainly have an impact and set us back. It is really disheartening."

But he is adamant that the hospice, offering 24-hour care for children from newborn to the age of four, will eventually open despite the setback.

Officials at the NOF told the hospice that the age range for the hospice was too limited.

In the region as a whole, £1.9m will help fund home- based palliative care teams for children and another £2.9m will go towards palliative care for adults.

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