The Liverpool Echo joined a city region-wide campaign to save a closure-threatened baby hospice which has been a lifeline for local families for almost 30 years.
Zoe’s Place baby hospice in Liverpool has officially been saved after an extraordinary campaign by the people of the city and beyond. On October 7, the city of Liverpool was stunned to hear news that Zoe’s Place, a hospice which has provided vital palliative and end-of-life-care for babies and young children and their families for nearly 30 years in West Derby, was set to close its doors at the end of the year.
Zoe’s Place provides respite, palliative and end-of-life care for babies and children up to the age of five and has supported countless local families in their most difficult moments. But last week staff were told the centre would close by the end of the year prompting the launch of a campaign to keep the hospice in Liverpool.
Supporters had until November 9 to raise an extra £5m to build a new facility for Zoe’s Place as the lease on its current site is about to run out. The drive attracted widespread support with this Liverpool Echo video created by Paul Philbin, Hannah Rees and Alice Walker, already generating 500,000 views on social platforms. It features former footballers Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher, Coronation Street actress Claire Sweeney and a trombone-playing John McDonnell, among a host of famous local faces supported the campaign.
As well as promoting the many fundraisers happening across Merseyside and beyond, the Liverpool Echo team launched its own JustGiving page with plans including a sponsored walk to Zoe’s Place from their office in Liverpool city centre. The Echo’s political editor Liam Thorp, regeneration writer Dan Haygarth and reporter Katie Westwood lead the Let’s Save Zoe’s Place campaign.
Liam said: “When we first broke the news that Zoe’s Place baby hospice was closing, the reaction across the city and the region was absolutely enormous. At first, it felt as though all was lost, but working with MP Ian Byrne and others around the city, the Echo backed a hugely inspiring and growing campaign that we hoped would give Zoe’s Place the best chance of finding a new home to continue to offer the lifeline services that it provides.”
Dan said: “Liverpool is a city famed for its warmth and generosity. We have seen that in spades over the past week as people across our region have gone the extra mile to raise money to help Zoe’s Place in its aim to move to a new base and continue its vital work.
“We at the Echo did our bit to raise money and help the fundraiser reach the £5m target. A group of our staff members walked from our city centre office to the hospice in West Derby and back again – a distance of ten miles – on October 26.”
“Experience tells me Liverpool doesn’t easily take no for an answer. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, and time was tight, but if any city could do it, it’s ours. The Echo has a long and proud history as a campaigning news brand and we’re honoured to have supported this most worthy of cause in whatever way we could have. There is an old adage in newspapers that you should never start a campaign you can’t win. But for the Liverpool Echo, we felt however difficult the fundraising challenge seemed, it was simply something we had to back and the whole city felt the same.”
Maria Breslin, Editor, Liverpool Echo
Read our coverage of Zoe’s Place here.
