Building work on an £880,000 resource centre which will bring vital information and support closer to home for people with life-limiting illnesses is set to begin.
Halesworth Community Nursing Care Fund (HCNCF) has appointed Great Yarmouth-based Elm Contracts (Contracting) Ltd to construct the Pear Tree Centre on land next to Cutlers Hill Surgery in Halesworth. Work will begin either later this year or early in 2019, with the building operational by late 2019.
The news comes after HCNCF completed the purchase of the land needed for the building while also resolving technical issues around access to services such as electricity and drainage.
Ted Edwards, co-chair of the Pear Tree Centre project, said: “We are absolutely delighted to have secured the land we need so that work on this fantastic community resource can begin.
“We have already been granted planning permission, and thanks to the support of our local community have raised nearly all of the funds needed for the construction. The land purchase was the final piece of the jigsaw puzzle to slot into place.
“We are incredibly grateful to everyone who has supported our fundraising drive, and really look forward to watching the Pear Tree Centre rise from the ground over the coming months so that it can start to bring real benefits to local people.”
Once open, anyone from north east Suffolk or south Norfolk with cancer or other life-limiting illnesses, along with their families and carers, will be welcome to use the centre. As well as help understanding a diagnosis, it will also offer family services, a raft of information and practical advice on finance, benefits and coping with bereavement.
The centre will include space for local support groups to meet, a counselling room, small library and a comfortable area where people can relax and chat informally. A therapy room where patients can receive complementary treatments, such as Reiki and massage, will also be available, along with a landscaped garden to help promote wellbeing.