YOU can help secure the future of your loved ones and local people at the same time by making a Will during National Wills Week and thinking about Bolton Hospice when you do so.

Bolton Hospice was opened in March 1992 and has gone on to gain a wonderful reputation for the very high standard of free care it provides for local people and their families at a difficult point in their lives.

Bolton Hospice does not charge its patients and so the generosity of members of the community is crucial to its survival.

The cost of running the Hospice is currently £1.9m a year, 35 per cent of which is covered by a health authority grant leaving the balance to be raised by the Hospice's Fundraising Department which needs the vital support of local people on an ongoing basis.

Every week in Britain a staggering number of people are diagnosed with cancer and other life threatening illnesses and, sadly, it is clear that for many years to come there will be increasing numbers of people who will need Bolton Hospice.

Just as a Will brings security to a family's future, a legacy to Bolton Hospice will secure future care for patients.

Every legacy is a promise - that the Hospice will always be there to help patients and families come to terms with their illness and live as fulfilling a life as possible.

There are three ways to help: A pecuniary bequest, which is the gift of a fixed sum; A residual bequest, which is what is left once family, friends and other beneficiaries have been provided for; A gift which may be a part of the residuary estate, for example a half or a quarter.

lf you decide to remember the Hospice in one of these important ways you will be helping to ensure that it can plan for the future of patients.

Legacies are a vital source of funding enabling the Hospice to continue to provide comprehensive specialist care that is individual to the patient, detailed and sensitive.

Local solicitors are supporting Bolton Hospice during Wills Week by offering to make Wills at a reduced rate - they may also offer a percentage of their fee to the Hospice which means everyone is a winner.

"We are very grateful to these companies for offering their support and hope that our campaign may help people to come to terms with making a Will sooner rather than later. If Bolton Hospice can be mentioned in some way in that Will it is an added bonus for us and the future - we are of course, on behalf of patients and their families, extremely grateful for valued contributions made in this way," said Director of Fundraising, Debra Graham.

You can support this campaign by calling the solicitors on this page during Wills Week, March 14 - 19.