A HEARTWARMING campaign to set up a children's hospice in Huddersfield has been given a major boost by a mystery benefactor.

The Forget-Me-Not Trust has been fundraising for the past six years in an effort to get the vital care facility built.

Now, a plot of land has come on the market for £150,000 - and the anonymous donor is offering to pay for it.

The six-acre site at Ainley Top, just off Lindley Moor Road, overlooks the Calder Valley.

Linda Senior, who founded the Trust in 1998, remained cautiously optimistic Kirklees planners would give the go-ahead.

Because of the land's proximity to the M62, tests are now being carried out on pollution and noise levels.

Depending on those results, outline planning permission could then be sought in about a month's time.

It could then be another year before the hospice is built - at an estimated cost of about £2 million with annual running costs of £1.5 million.

The seven-bed hospice could be extended with a four-bed teenage unit.

Since 1998, the Forget-Me-Not Trust has raised £450,000.

"If we do get planning permission on this field, we'll go for big grants for the building," said Linda.

Members of the public are being given the chance to buy a brick with a personalised inscription. It is hoped that will make £1 million for the building fund.

Linda, a single mum, set up the Trust after her own son, Russell Shepherd, was diagnosed with a rare brain condition.

Russell, just 11, has needed more than 47 major operations to drain fluid from his brain. He has a twin brother, Tom.

Linda said : "Hospices are needed. With medical advances ill children are living longer. In theory my little boy should not be here. But he is."

The hospice will help families throughout the whole of West Yorkshire.

At the moment the two closest children's hospices to Huddersfield are Francis House in Manchester and Martin House near Wetherby - at least 45 minutes by car.

Linda said: "If you have got a sick child, that's a long way."

They give respite care for parents who otherwise look after a very sick child round-the-clock.

Alternatively, if a hospital will not admit a child, hospices provide emergency beds.

Or, in cases where nothing can be done for a youngster, they can take in the terminally ill.