The Newsquest newspaper group has been praised in Parliament for its campaign to get fairer funding for children’s hospices.

Bob Spink, MP for the Castle Point constituency in Essex, spoke out in response to a campaign by the Evening Echo which followed a campaign by the News Shopper in Kent.

They together forced the Government to give children’s hospices the same funding as adult hospices.

The Echo revealed how Little Haven children’s hospice in Thundersley, which cares for terminally ill children, receives just two per cent of its budget from the Government.

The MP told the House of Commons: “I warmly congratulate the local Evening Echo and the Newsquest newspaper group on their campaign to get fairer funding for our hospices.

“They are running an effective campaign, and have particularly caught the public’s imagination with their latest headline, which reads ‘Fair deal for our sick children’.

“I could not have put it better. The hospices do the country, the health service and families that need to use them a very great service.

“I take the opportunity to congratulate all hospice staff, both medical and other, throughout the country on what they do.”

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