A LOTTERY grant of £287,139 over three years will help Rossendale Hospice provide a range of therapies for people with life-threatening illnesses.

For the first time, the lottery grant funded treatments are not confined to Rossendale patients but are available to people throughout East Lancashire.

The first treatment due to be introduced will be the hypno-chemo programme to reduce the side effects of chemotherapy.

Other treatments will include aromatherapy, reflexology, reiki, hypnotherapy and psychotherapy to help relive pain, improve sleep, decrease tension, reduce stress and anxiety, improve mental and emotional attitudes and alleviate physical problems. Hospice chairman Dorothy Mitchell said a previous grant to deliver complementary therapies in palliative care ran out at the end of March and the hospice was delighted with the latest grant. She said: "We believe there is a place in the NHS for therapies such as we offer and that alongside conventional treatment. We should find a way to make them available.

"A stock reply from the NHS is that there is no research evidence.

"We intend with the help of this grant to demonstrate the benefits and cost benefits of making them available.

"What we do in the field of complementary health care is innovative and increasingly over the last three years we have been visited by hospices from all over the country wishing to follow suit.''

In light of the success of the project, the Hospice Board agreed that Liz Taylor, co-ordinator of complementary healthcare, should study for an M Med Sci in palliative care.

The work done during the time of the new lottery grant was formalised as part of her Masters Degree supervised from the Department of Palliative medicine at the University of Sheffield.

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