ONE of the region’s charities has issued an urgent appeal for the public to rally round after revealing it may not break even this year.

Donations to The Butterwick Hospice, based in Stockton and Bishop Auckland, are down by £150,000 compared with this time last year as the economic downturn bites.

The hospice, which looks after terminally ill adults and children, also had its NHS funding cut by ten per cent earlier this year.

Graham Leggatt-Chidgey, chief executive at hospice, said the charity, which cares for up to 200 patients a day, must raise £3.7m a year and is hoping the public will rally round to prevent the shortfall getting worse before next year’s budget is set in March and April.

The reduced funding is despite record amounts being raised by this year’s BBC’s Children in Need and the Royal British Legion’s poppy appeal.

However, Mr Leggatt-Chidgey stressed the hospice was not planning cut backs.

He said: “This is not a crisis-crisis. I can assure our patients and families that nothing is going to affect what we do and we can manage this, but obviously we don’t want the situation to continue.

“We’re once again going to redouble our efforts to make up the shortfall.”

Mr Leggatt-Chidgey said the NHS had earlier this year reduced its annual contribution to the hospice by ten per cent, a total of £35,000 so far this financial year. The hospice successfully applied for extra one-off funding from the NHS this year, but next April the cut will begin to hurt.

He said: “Our charity shops and lottery have held up but our general donations are down much of our funding, £2.9m, comes from that.

“In the past few years of the economic downturn we’ve just pushed harder and held more activities to keep it up and our public are always fantastic.

“It’s not that fewer people are giving to us even now, it’s just that they’re giving a bit less because they’ve got less.

“Where we might have had a cheque for £15 now it will be £10. We know we’re serving the area worst hit by the recession and it’s not just us, we know we’re not alone.”

* Cheques should be made payable to Butterwick Hospice Care and forwarded to Butterwick Hospice Fundraising Department, Winder House, Kingfisher Way, Preston Farm, Stockton, TS18 3EX. Donations can be made by debit/credit card either over the phone by calling the Fundraising office on 01642-628930 or by visiting the Butterwick website at butterwick.org.uk/donatefunds