A WELL-known hospice which originated in Droitwich will soon celebrate its 20th anniversary.

A thanksgiving service to celebrate St Richard's Hospice's landmark birthday will be held at Pershore Abbey next Thursday.

More than 6,500 patients and their families across the region have been supported by the hospice since it was first formed in Droitwich Spa in 1984 to support those with cancer and other life-threatening illness.

The hospice has grown from a handful of patients looked after by one clinical nurse specialist to more than 1,100 patients and families cared for last year alone.

In this, its 20th year, the hospice cares for more than 60 per cent of people who die from cancer in south Worcestershire.

The anniversary service will start at 7.30pm and the Rev Kenneth Crawford, vicar of Pershore Abbey, will welcome the congregation and give a blessing at the end of the service.

St Richard's is an integral part of the community and, in addition to its 55 staff, there are more than 600 volunteers, many of whom are specially-trained to care for patients.

All its services are free and include a day hospice, home care team, bereavement, social work, family therapy and counselling service, 24-hour on call advice line and The Snowdrop Group, for young women living with cancer.

Chairman of governors, Jeannie Young, said: "In our twentieth anniversary year I am proud to say the total focus of St Richard's Hospice remains with the patient and their family -- it always has been and always will be.

"There are many fond memories from the first days of the hospice in Droitwich, then the move to a terraced house in Castle Street, Worcester, and, as patient numbers grew, on to our current base at Rose Hill, which was officially opened by Diana, Princess of Wales.

"I cannot thank people enough for the hard work, dedication and commitment they have shown to St Richard's in the last twenty years and ask that they continue in the future and play a part to bring our new hospice, with a much-needed fifteen-bedded unit, to fruition."

St Richard's has recently been given planning permission to build a state-of-the-art £5.25 million hospice, combining all its current services with a bedded unit at Wildwood Way, Worcester.