In the words of Mary Butterwick, the organisation that carries her name is all about love. And without the love of the community, it cannot exist.

But in reality, the provision of holistic care for children and adults living with a life-limiting illness, along with support for families and loved ones, cannot be funded through good-will. In the words of Butterwick’s current chief executive, unless additional money is made available, the current hospice provision will simply become unsustainable.

18 months ago, we first reported hospices in the region were in crisis, with costs spiralling and reserves running low. Bosses said their charities were "unable to meet the ever-rising costs of the specialist hospice care" and called for immediate help before it is too late and hospice services are forced to reduce or close.

Now, with winter looming and services expected to be stretched further than ever before, the situation continues to worsen. The number of people living with dementia who require end-of-life care is set to substantially increase in the coming years, with researchers projecting as many as 675,000 patients will need palliative care by 2040.

And only last month, charity Marie Curie said a third of dying people in England and Wales were severely or overwhelmingly affected by pain in the last week of life, showing how patchy and inconsistent care has become. The charity has previously predicted that by 2048 there will be an additional 147,000 people in the UK who need palliative care before they die.

Across the country, hospices are having to make impossible decisions about the services they can afford to provide, including making frontline staff redundant, and closing or reducing some services. It may not be long before organisations in our region have to do the same.

The Government must now urgently address the funding model to avoid a devastating future for the sector and for those who need its vital care. Second-hand shops and other local fundraising cannot be expected to plug what it projected to be a £60 million funding gap in hospice care this year.

Research estimates hospice charity shops would have to sell 5,375 pairs of jeans to fund a palliative care nurse for a year and a 43,000 blouses to cover a bed for a patient for the same period. This is not a sustainable funding model.

The current approach feels like hospices are receiving end-of-life care, when in reality, they need to be operating long into the future with a high-quality and sustainable level of care.

It is time for the Government to show hospices some love.