AFTER two-and-a-half-years of fundraising – Mary Stevens Hospice has reached its £3million target to remodel it day unit.

The Stourbridge hospice launched the appeal, the biggest in its history, back in June 2016 to fund a total revamp of the facility - to help cope with increasing demand.

Thanks to overwhelming support for the project, including a whopping Christmas donation from Brierley Hill businessman Mike Brown, hospice bosses say the rebuild of the day services unit is now complete and the new facility has already opened its doors to patients.

The original unit was opened in 1991 by Diana, Princess of Wales, and it had been running at 100 per cent capacity - able to care for 17 patients a day.

The new facility, however, comes with state-of-the-art new equipment and it can take up to 25 patients a day.

It also includes an apartment so that families can move in when their loved ones are receiving care in the hospice's residential in-patient unit.

Hospice CEO Stevan Jackson said: "It has taken a huge effort in these difficult times by our fundraisers to raise the £3m needed and we cannot be more pleased that they have done so well.

"These new facilities will help us to do much more to meet the currently unmet needs of the thousands of people in our borough who, every year, are in desperate need of palliative care as they approach the end of their lives as a result of progressive, incurable, illness - and also their carers whom we support - often for years."

Benevolent Mike 'The Bed' Brown, boss of Dreamland Bedding Centre in Brierley Hill, was among those who have helped to bring the project to fruition.

Long-time hospice supporter Mr Brown has made a £23,000 donation towards the cost of building the on-site living space for families and pledged to furnish the entire family apartment for free.

He also made a £12,000 donation towards an education facility to improve the standard of healthcare in the borough.

Hospice bosses plan to officially launch the new day services unit in January.