A Stoke Sentinel-backed charity has received a major boost in its bid to provide Staffordshire with care for its seriously ill youngsters.

The Donna Louise Trust has been awarded £452,000 by the National Lottery to set up a nursing team to visit homes in the community and provide respite and terminal care for sick children.

The money will enable the charity, set up in 1999 in the name of 16-year-old Cystic Fybrosis victim, Donna Louise, to employ a four-strong team over a three-year period.

The award is one of the largest ever made in Staffordshire, and is being seen as a national vote of confidence for the campaign to build a £5m hospice for sick children in Stoke.

Chariman of the trust, David Milburn said: “This is tremendous news for the trust and, more importantly, for those children and their families who are in desperate need of support.”

So far fund raising events have raised nearly £600,000, and a construction firm has agreed to build the hospice for no charge, a move that will save the charity £2m.

Tania Shakinovsky, the campaign reporter for the Sentinel, has undertaken a number of tasks herself to raise more than £4,000 for the appeal in the last year, including braving the Oblivion ride at Alton Towers with former darts champion Eric Bristow.

Now the trust is turning its attentions to raising the £1m required to fit out the hospice.

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