A LOTTERY which raises money for St Clare’s Hospice is on the brink of financial collapse because of the credit crunch.

The £1,000 weekly draw has raised almost £2 million for the hospice in Hastingwood in the last ten years.

But the number of players has now fallen by half from its high of 6,000.

This means that the draw is raising £1,000 a month less than it used to, and St Clare’s staff say the outlook is not good.

Director of Fundraising, Sue Upton said: “We have seen a dramatic loss of people playing our weekly lottery in the last few months.

Players, many of whom have been with us for years, are calling to say they have to stop because of the current economic climate.

“The situation is, if we can’t stop this sad decline and generate more lottery members then we will seriously have to look at the financial feasibility of this which would be devastating especially as it has been running for so long and around 20 percent of the players have been with us since the first draw.

“If our weekly lottery were to collapse we would have a £38,000 gap in our funding this year - that is enough to provide our day therapy service for ten weeks so it is a huge gap.”

The Hospice provides end of life care and therapy for terminally ill people across West Essex and helps to support bereaved families, but it has to raise £1.75million of its annual £2.5 million running costs.

Mrs Upton said that if the figures don’t improve they will have to cut services.

She added: ”It’s unprecedented, We’ve come to a point where we cannot have a lottery anymore. Its difficult to see how we can make up that financial gap. People are saying that they’re finding it difficult.

“Every area is quite stretched, they all have extremely high targets. For example, our shops need to raise £250,000 this year.”

• The weekly jackpot is £1,500 and it costs £1 a week to enter (minimum entry of four weeks). To take part call the Lottery team on weekday mornings on 01279 773 730 or visit stclaire-hospice.co.uk/hospice-lottery.