STAFF at Cotswold Care Hospice, are celebrating after receiving a £600,000 Government grant towards the cost of building a care centre..

The windfall has been allocated to the hospice in Minchinhampton, which covers the South Cotswolds and has two shops in Dursley, by the Department of Health's Dignity in Care for Older People programme.

It will be used to help pay for a £2.6million Palliative Care Centre at the hospice and thanks to the size of the grant, work can get under way next month.

Prince Charles is bound to be as delighted as hospice staff for he is patron of the charity and has made several private visits.

The £600,000 award is a share of £40 million of funding from the Department of Health to help organisations which care for people with terminal illness and facing the end of their lives.

The grant was confirmed in a letter to Cotswold Care's Chief Executive, Marcus Green by Health Minister Rosie Winterton.

Mr Green said: " This money is a tremendous boost to our fundraising - we need to raise £2.6million to provide the very highest quality care to the people of Gloucestershire with cancers and other life limiting illnesses.

"Over 80 percent of our funds come from the people of Gloucestershire who have raised so much money for us. This money means we can begin building and investing in our future almost immediately."

For more on this story, see the Gloucestershire Gazette tomorrow.