A CAMPAIGNER who helped raise hundreds of thousands of pounds for the Prospect Hospice is moving on.

Gillian Richardson, who has been community fundraiser for the hospice for five years, is to step down ahead of its 25th anniversary year in 2005.

Ms Richardson, 43, said: "The hospice needed someone new to steer the ship through this important year, which will also mark its 10th year in Wroughton."

Ms Richardson has witnessed all kinds of fund-raising events in her time, from abseiling to the more conventional money earners like coffee mornings.

"You can't imagine what the job entails until you start to do it," she said.

"It's a fantastic job, and it's the volunteers who are involved in the hospice who make it all worthwhile."

Ms Richardson will be passing on the baton to Maggie Gill, a former project manager at Zurich Financial Services.

Mrs Gill, 45, who formally takes over after Christmas, said she was very excited to be taking the reins.

"It's a huge responsibility but I've been bowled over by the fact the phone doesn't stop ringing with people promising to raise money in all kinds of ways," she said.

Mrs Gill said she intended to spend her first weeks in the job getting out in the community to meet as many people as she could.

Donations and fund-raising are crucial to the hospice's survival.

This year it received 36 per cent of its funding from the Government, which meant it still had to raise £1.7 million from voluntary sources.

Over the next few years Government contributions are expected to rise to 50 per cent of the total required to keep it going.

But rather than relaxing its fundraising operations the hospice wants to move up a gear and expand its services.

It would like to extend the opening of its day hospice from three days per week to five, or even seven.

It also wants to increase the capacity of its in-patient unit from 10 beds to 12.

Andy Tate