ST LEONARD’S Hospice is 30 this year. And to mark the anniversary, the charity has launched a new appeal.

It wants to raise £30,000 - £1,000 for every year it has been operating - to improve the Hospice@Home service.

The service, launched four years ago, aims to provide the same level of care for terminally ill people in their own homes as the hospice offers to in-patients. Money raised through the appeal will buy three support vehicles to be used by staff offering the at-home care.

Last year, the charity actually cared for more people at home than it did in the hospice itself – 500 home patients, compared to 350 at Tadcaster Road.

Partly, that is because some people prefer to be looked after in their own homes. But demand for the hospice’s services is also rising: its catchment area was increased in 2013 following the latest NHS reorganisation, so it now covers a much wider area.

One thing patients and families can be confident of: whether treated at home or in the hospice, patients will get nothing but the best.

As one in-patient – interviewed as he was enjoying a glass of sherry – put it recently, St Leonard’s isn’t a place of sadness. There is an air of calmness and even optimism that is hugely comforting and reassuring to patients and families alike. “It’s like a first-class hotel,” the patient said. “Everybody here is just wonderful.”

Chief executive Martyn Callaghan reckons that, in one way or another, the hospice has touched the lives of one in three York people. Little wonder, then, that it is held in such huge affection.

The new appeal seems the perfect way for the hospice to celebrate its birthday. So, if you’re looking for a good cause to support, why not consider this one?