FOUR-and-a-half months since the turf was first cut, and the landscape behind the headquarters of St David's Hospice Care in Newport is being transformed by work on its new inpatient unit.
The soggy slope that hosted then health minister Mark Drakeford during the turf-cutting ceremony on a rain-lashed morning back in January, is much changed by ongoing building work that is set to create a 15-bed inpatient unit.
The £5 million project will link to the charity's headquarters at Blackett Avenue, Malpas, enabling the expansion of its inpatient palliative care service for patients with life threatening or terminal illnesses.
Building work is expected to continue for another year, with the unit set to take in its first patients later in 2017.
"There's a great deal still to do, but the transformation in just a few months is amazing," said St David's Hospice Care chief executive Emma Saysell.
The Welsh Government has provided £3m for the project, which will be Wales' first independent hospice project in the 21st Century.
The unit - which will eventually replace the 10-bed unit at the former St Anne's Hospice site, also in Malpas and now run by St David's Hospice Care - has also attracted a £500,000 Big Lottery grant, and other aid, such as £10,000 from the Albert Hunt Trust.
More recently, a grant of £200,000 towards the capital cost of the project has also been secured from the Garfield Weston Foundation, a grant-making trust which supports charities throughout the UK across a range of subjects, including health.
"We are absolutely thrilled for their support, it is greatly appreciated," said Mrs Saysell.
St David’s Hospice Care also works closely with Aneurin Bevan University Health Board and Newport council, the latter having gifted a parcel of land behind the charity's headquarters to enable the project to proceed.
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