WIRRAL'S newest weekly lottery starts on Friday (January 2) - and someone, somewhere is, at the touch of a button, going to be £2,000 richer!

The Mayor of Wirral, Coun Barney Gilfoyle, will perform the first draw at 11am in the The £3,000 St John's Hospice in Wirral Weekly Lottery, which offers a top prize of £2,000 and 53 other prizes ranging from £500 to £5.

Lottery Manager Allan Stewart has declared himself "well satisfied" with the support that has already been shown by the people of Wirral. "I am very happy with the support - and I am certain other people will want to join in as the weeks unfold," he told me.

And added: "After months of hard work, we are all really looking forward to the first draw - and while no-one will become a millionaire with us, someone each week will receive a handsome cash prize of £2,000, not to mention all the other prizewinners."

Officials at St John's decided to launch their own local lottery following refusal of an application for National Lottery funds to help meet the £1 million annual running costs of the hospice, which provides invaluable care for the terminally ill and their families.

Membership of the St John's Hospice Lottery is open to people aged 16 or over and costs just £1 per week. That buys one ticket which gives the holder a unique number selected by computer.

The 54 winning numbers will be published each week in the Wirral Globe.

There are two ways to play - either by paying in advance on a 'block booking' basis (forms available from the Hospice) or by paying a collector who will call every other week.

Hospice officials reckon that each member will have about a one-in-85 chance of winning and that, with 10,000 members, each person's contribution to St John's, a registered charity, will amount to more than 50p compared with the 5.5p the National Lottery gives to Good Causes.

St John's Hospice opened in 1983 in the former Wendy children's ward building on the present site next to Clatterbridge Hospital, Bebington. In February, 1995, it launched an amazingly successful £1 million Sunrise Appeal to fund a new, purpose-built 16-bed In-Patient Unit, refurbished Day Hospice and an Out-Patients Department.

"We were extremely disappointed at the National Lottery's decision not to accept our request for funding," explained Helen Crawford, Fundraising Manager at St John's, "particularly as we have increased our services over the past year."

She added: "The new St John's Hospice was made possible by the overwhelming generosity of the people of Wirral; it warmly welcomes all those with progressive illness, not responsive to curative treatment, into the quiet calm of a highly professional, caring atmosphere which Comforts Always both them and their families or carers following referral by their Consultant or General Practitioner."

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