OXFORD’S Douglas House hospice is set to benefit from a £1m extension.

The facility for 16- to 35-year-olds became the world’s first hospice specially designed to serve young adults when it opened alongside Helen House children’s hospice, in Magdalen Road, East Oxford, in 2004.

The extension, to help meet increased demand for its services, is due for completion by April.

David Pastor, director of support services at Helen and Douglas House, said two anonymous donations had paid for the work.

He added: “Douglas House cost £3m when it opened in 2004, and we now help 150 to 200 young adults a year, and their families 365 days a year.

“We’re very fortunate to have received these two donations, which have allowed us to construct an annexe to Douglas House, with a glazed corridor linking it to the existing building.

“We have seven bedrooms and four family flats at the moment. The extension means we will be able to provide extra bathroom facilities.

“We can also switch our laundry from upstairs to downstairs, change our games area and provide some more space for volunteers and some more storage space.

“In the past six months, we have found we are getting more and more referrals.

“We have been incredibly busy – and this extension will really help us to enhance the quality of the support we can give to young adults.

“The people who donated the money are long-standing supporters, but they want to remain anonymous.”

Mr Pastor said a 1950s bungalow had been demolished to make way for the development.

He stressed that fundraising events like last month’s Santa Fun Run in the city centre, and the annual comedy night Childish Things, held at the New Theatre, in George Street, were crucial to pay the running costs of Helen and Douglas House, which are more than £4.5m a year.

Lucy Morgan, from Rose Hill, walked the route of last month’s Santa Fun Run route in memory of her son Richard, who died aged 21 in 2005. She said that staff at Douglas House were “brilliant” with her son, who was diagnosed with a brain tumour when he was aged two-and-a-half, and added that she welcomed the extension.

l Childish Things, now in its sixth year, has so far raised £170,000 for Helen and Douglas House. This year it will be held on Saturday, March 20.

Tickets for the show are available from the New Theatre box office and website, or from the Helen and Douglas House charity shops in Abingdon, Chipping Norton, Wallingford, Witney and Thame.

affrench@oxfordmail.co.uk For more information about the hospices, see helenanddouglas.org.uk