Newsquest’s Oxfordshire titles are campaigning for a children’s hospital to be built in Oxford.

The £20m hospital could be open by December 2005, and will offer specialist care for children as well as being a leading centre for paediatric research.

The campaign was launched in September and aims to raise money for the hospital.

Oxford Mail editor Jim McClure said: “Oxford doctors saved my younger son’s life – but you don’t need a memory like that to feel sure there can’t be a more worthwhile cause in the county than helping to see the children’s hospital become a reality.”

The introduction of the hospital will put an end to children having to be scattered around the city in different wards, most of which are designed for adults.

The Oxford Radcliffe Hospital, where the new centre is to be built, has raised £5m.

The Oxford Mail and sister newsgroups hope to raise the remaining £15m.

Project director Vicki Lamb said: “Currently, children are not only seen in accommodation that was built for adults, but they have to go through many adult areas before they get to the children’s out-patient department or wards.

“In the new children’s hospital, they will arrive at the JR and go straight into a purpose-built building. It will be designed to take away the fear of going to hospital.”

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