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The appeal to create modern facilities at the hospice site in Granton kicked off with the Evening News-backed Buy a Brick appeal, which raised £325,252.

Since then the total has continued to rise with donations from charitable trusts, private donors and fundraising events.

The milestone was finally passed yesterday thanks to the efforts of 21 people who cycled from Edinburgh to Iona on the hospice’s Celtic Challenge, raising more than £43,000 between them.

The announcement came on the day that two more fundraising cyclists arrived at Edinburgh’s National Monument after cycling 3000 miles from Athens on the Parthenon to Parthenon challenge.

The hospice’s director of fundraising Lesley Christie said: “We are absolutely thrilled to have reached the £1 million milestone. We are indebted to the Edinburgh community for their support of our rebuild campaign so far. Every single pound of the £1 million we have raised has been donated by individuals, local businesses, organisations, charitable trusts, schools, community groups and churches, and we feel tremendously honoured to have them all behind us as we build our new St Columba’s Hospice.

“We’ve been close to reaching £1 million for a few weeks now, but when we tallied up the total that the Celtic Challenge cyclists had raised we couldn’t believe it. We thought the team might raise £20,000, so to reach over £43,000 is unbelievable, and we can’t thank the cyclists and their supporters enough for everything they have done.”

The total for the appeal now stands at £1,007,526. Donations have included £33,000 given by a man whose wife died at the hospice. The donor, who asked to remain anonymous, gave the money to pay for a family room in recognition of the care his family had received.

Several charitable trusts, which also require to stay anonymous, made donations of up to £100,000 each.

Other donations have come from numerous individuals.

Ms Christie said: “St Columba’s Hospice is a very special place that has touched the lives of thousands of people in our city and beyond. We’re looking forward to creating our state-of-the-art hospice that will care for more than 40,000 patients and their loved ones over the next 40 years.

“We are absolutely thrilled to have reached the £1 million milestone. We still have £6 million to raise so we hope that the community will continue supporting us as we start our next chapter.”

Among the events helping the hospice reach that total will be next year’s Celtic Challenge, due to be held from May 23 to 27.

To register your interest contact Michael Bauld on 0131-551 7707 or by e-mailing [email protected]

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