THE fruits of 18 months' fund-raising by a church group is heading for Kemp Hospice.

Some £700 has been collected by the St Ambrose Union of Catholic Mothers through coffee evenings and cake sales.

Spokeswoman Margaret Holmes said: "We take a charity each year as a project.

"When we started Kemp was asking for money to build a new centre and so we thought we'd like to support a local charity rather than a national one."

The 25-strong body is a social and prayer group based around St Ambrose Roman Catholic Church in Kidderminster.

Kemp Hospice has bought a former hotel in the town's Mason Road to convert into an 18-place day care centre which is set to open later this year.

Further facilities such as an in-patient unit will follow at a later date.