1998 will be but a few hours old when St John's Hospice in Wirral makes it a memorable year for at least one Wirral person . . .

That will be the lucky holder of the number which scoops the £2,000 jackpot in the first-ever draw in a new weekly lottery being launched by St John's Hospice.

And there is still time for you to be in that draw - or to give membership of the lottery as a Christmas gift which could pay handsome dividends . . .

The first draw will be made on Friday, January 2 - the Mayor of Wirral, Coun Barney Gilfoyle, will press the computer button - and the final day for being certain of being in with a chance in the first-ever draw is Tuesday, December 30.

Each week throughout the year, the St John's Hospice Lottery will offer 54 prizes totalling £3,000 - a top prize of £2,000, second prize of £500, third prize of £100, fourth prize of £50, 20 £10 winners and 30 £5 winners.

Officials at St John's decided to launch its own local lottery following refusal of an application for National Lottery funds to help meet the £1 million annual running costs of the hospice, which provides invaluable care for the terminally ill and their families.

Membership of the St John's Hospice Lottery is open to people aged 16 or over and costs just £1 per week. That buys one ticket which gives the holder a unique number selected by computer.

The 54 winning numbers will be published each week in the Wirral Globe.

There are two ways to play - either by paying in advance on a 'block booking' basis or by paying a collector who will call every other week.

Lottery Manager Allan Stewart would still like to hear from more people willing to become collectors. He can be contacted at St John's Hospice Lottery Office on (0151) 334-0348.

Hospice officials reckon that each member will have about a one-in-85 chance of winning and that, with 10,000 members, each person's contribution to St John's, a registered charity, will amount to more than 50p compared with the 5.5p the National Lottery gives to Good Causes.

Helen Crawford, Fundraising Manager at St John's, said: "We hope the people of Wirral, who have always been so generous to us, will make the St John's Hospice Lottery as successful as those operated by other hospices throughout the country."

St John's Hospice opened in 1983 in the former Wendy children's ward building on the present site next to Clatterbridge Hospital, Bebington. In February, 1995, it launched an amazingly successful Sunrise Appeal to fund a new, purpose-built 16-bed In-Patient Unit, refurbished Day Hospice and an Out-Patients Department.

The Globe-backed Sunrise Appeal caught the local imagination and in just 12 months attracted £1 million from the Wirral public and commercial and financial institutions on Merseyside.

"We were extremely disappointed at the National Lottery's decision not to accept our request for funding," explained Helen Crawford, "particularly as we have increased our services over the past year."

She added: "The new St John's Hospice was made possible by the overwhelming generosity of the people of Wirral; it warmly welcomes all those with progressive illness, not responsive to curative treatment, into the quiet calm of a highly professional, caring atmosphere which Comforts Always both them and their families or carers following referral by their Consultant or General Practitioner."

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