MORE than £1 million has been invested in a hospice’s fundraising lottery.

The social arm of The Big Issue has invested up to £1.5million in St Helena Hospice’s Your Hospice Lottery, which supports hospices and the wider charity sector.

Big Issue Invest made the investment to allow the hospice to generate more income to support itself and other hospices in the country.

The hospice lottery was set up in 2011 and has raised more than £9million for hospice care.

In 2017, St Helena set up Make a Smile, another lottery to reach the wider charity market.

Brian Bolt, director of finance at St Helena Hospice, said: “With this investment, we have the opportunity to work on attracting new partners and new lottery players, which will raise the profile of St Helena and its charitable partners and provide more jobs as the lottery grows.

“The Big Issue name is well recognised and helps organisations like ours to look after themselves and be here for our communities in the long term.

“We are delighted it is keen to support the work we do by helping us become more self-sustainable and more self-sufficient.”

St Helena Hospice provides a wide range of expert care and support for people with incurable illness.

Last year, it supported 3,869 patients and families offering in-patient and at home care as well as therapies and bereavement counselling.

The north Essex hospice has to raise £6.2million of the £8.9million needed every year to provide its services.

Jonny Page, investment manager at Big Issue Invest, said: “We are so pleased to invest into St Helena Hospice to facilitate further growth of their highly innovative and wide-reaching lottery business.

“We are excited to continue to work with St Helena as they generate income for not only their own hospice, but the wider hospice and charity sector.”

To play St Helena Hospice’s lottery visit sthelena.org.uk/lottery or call 0800 285 1390.