THE Countess of Chester Hospital’s Babygrow Appeal is the most ambitious fundraiser ever set by the hospital’s fundraising committee.

Now the charity is looking to the local community for support.

The appeal has a £3m target to build a brand new neonatal unit, which will be more than double the size of the current unit, providing improved facilities and a more spacious environment for the babies being cared for, and their families.

The hospital’s current neonatal unit, often referred to as the special care baby unit, was built in 1974 and is now fairly outdated in terms of the décor and design.

Despite this, the dedicated medical team provides high standards of care and treatment.

Last year, the neonatal unit cared for about 450 babies, many of whom were very poorly, either in intensive care or on ventilators.

Some babies stay in the unit for just a few hours, for others it can be weeks or even months.

Understandably, this can be a very anxious time for mum and dad, who are often are spending a lot of time in the unit, and currently the restricted size of the unit means they cannot always be provided with the space and privacy they would like.

There is no separate room where siblings can be entertained or play freely and there is no dedicated counselling room, for when bad news has to be given.

The Babygrow Appeal will provide all this and much more, in a brand new purpose built neonatal unit.

The appeal has already raised hundreds of thousands of pounds, but the charity needs the community’s support to reach the huge target.

Fundraising manager Janet Ratcliffe said: “We are absolutely delighted with very little publicity so far we have already been offered support from individuals, companies, schools and charitable groups including Chester Lions.

“We are putting together a programme of events we hope will appeal to all sectors within our local community.”

Events fundraiser Kathy Kenney added: “Not everybody realises at the Countess of Chester Hospital we have a separate registered charity which exists to generate and manage charitable income, which is used to enhance and improve patient facilities at the hospital.

“The charity does not use donations to replace Government funding, instead it focuses on areas not covered or fully supported by central NHS funds.”

In recent years the fundraising team at the Countess of Chester Hospital has spearheaded several major appeals to improve facilities for patients and their families. Each appeal has been successfully concluded.

Projects have included raising £1.2m to build a new breast care unit, almost £600,000 to extend and refurbish the haematology and oncology unit, and more recently £300,000 was raised to provide overnight accommodation and a day lounge for families of patients being cared for on the critical care unit.

This accommodation is due for completion in October.