STOURBRIDGE'S Mary Stevens Hospice is to launch the biggest appeal in its history to fund a £3million revamp of its day unit to cope with increasing demand.

The hospice's Day Services Unit is currently running at 100 per cent capacity - with nearly 4,500 patient attendances last year - so charity bosses have drawn up ambitious plans to completely refurbish and modernise the facility which opened back in 1991.

The proposed redevelopment would see the existing unit - which was officially opened by Diana, Princess of Wales - extended and remodelled to include new treatment rooms, state-of-the-art new equipment, improved child bereavement and consultation facilities, better education and training facilities and a family apartment allowing relatives to stay at the hospice to be close to loved ones at critical times.

It would also allow the hospice to devote 30 per cent more space to patients and offer vital services such as blood transfusions which would previously have had to be carried out in hospital.

Hospice bosses hope to be able to accommodate an extra 3,500 patient attendances and open the current Monday to Friday facility seven days a week to benefit more people and families across the borough battling life-limiting illnesses.

The project, which has been unveiled following a successful recent £1million revamp of the hospice's ten-bed residential unit, has been in the planning stage for two years but it has now been given the green light by the charity's board of trustees who have also agreed to donate the first £1million towards the scheme.

Much support and help from the community, however, will also be needed to raise the extra £2million required to bring the project to fruition.

John Woodall, chairman of Mary Stevens Hospice Board of Trustees, said: “The services provided by Mary Stevens Hospice in Dudley borough are unique and essential.

"However, the 25-year-old hospice building is now showing its age and urgently requires expansion and enhancement to meet growing future need.

"In 2014, trustees committed over £1million to improve the In-Patient Unit services and we desperately need to modernise and transform the day services too.

"We need to increase the number of patients for whom we can provide care and trustees believe this is best done by increasing the capacity and capabilities of the Day Services Unit and improving our ability to provide education and training of others, such as care home and NHS staff, in palliative and end-of-life care."

Stevan Jackson, the hospice's CEO, added: “Since the hospice was opened 25 years ago the number of day unit patient attendances has increased dramatically.

"In the last ten years alone attendances have almost doubled, from 2,282 in 2005 to 4,244 in 2015, and many of our patients now have highly complex needs.

"We expect the numbers to continue rising and complexity of conditions to increase.

"Trustees have calculated the most effective way of coping with this ever-increasing demand on the day unit is to increase capacity by around 80 per cent, which would allow a further 3,692 patient attendances annually."

The £3million project costs, however, are in addition to the hospice's annual running costs of £2.9million - 80 per cent of which are funded by donations and through fundraising initiatives.

Hospice chiefs plan to officially launch the big appeal in the summer as part of efforts to mark the charity's 25th anniversary.

In the meantime, they have submitted a planning application for the redevelopment to Dudley Council and applied to the Ernest Stevens Trust to extend the hospice's lease of the building - something they say is crucial to ensure the project goes ahead as envisioned.

Businesses and groups will be able to find out more about the proposed scheme at a series of presentations later this year.

Anyone wishing to make a donation towards the project can do so online at www.justgiving.com/fundraising/mshcapitalappeal