Winner announced in room naming competition for The Mill

The winners have been chosen in a competition launched with the local community to name the rooms within an exciting new development taking shape in the grounds of St Catherine’s Hospice.

The Mill in St Catherine’s Park will be a café open to everyone to enjoy, but it will also be an informal place where people affected by life-shortening conditions can access therapies, information and support. The idea is to help people help themselves and each other to live more comfortably and independently.

The Mill will also be a community space with rooms which can be hired out to local companies and organisations to host everything from craft sessions to business meetings.

A competition was launched online and in the community asking local people to put their ideas forward for what the three rooms within The Mill should be called and the winners have now been chosen.

The training room – suitable for things like light exercise classes or networking meetings – has been named the James de Lostock Room by Joanne Copeland, after the man who built Lostock Hall on the site where the hospice today stands. The craft room has been named the Green Butterfly Room by Issy Hayes, in honour of the hospice’s well-known and much-loved logo.

The Mill received several suggestions along these themes and entered the relevant names into a hat, with Joanne and Issy picked out as the winners.

Staff and volunteers at the Lostock Hall hospice also decided that the final room, for complementary therapies, will be called the Siena Suite – in tribute to St Catherine’s of Siena after whom the hospice is named.

Joanne, a former volunteer who gave her time to help on the hospice in-patient unit, said she was delighted to be involved with the exciting new project.

The sales representative with the Lancashire Telegraph who lives in Chorley said: “I was very excited when I found out my suggestion had been chosen! I thought something recognising the history of the area and the roots of the place would be appropriate – going back to where it all began, as something new begins.

“I’m really looking forward to The Mill opening this autumn. My nan was cared for at home by the hospice nurse specialists, and my daughter’s grandma was looked after at the hospice where she passed away. I know a café where myself and other family members could go for a chat and a cup of tea would have been something we’d have really welcomed at that time.”

Issy, whose grandmother Daphne Russell was cared for at St Catherine’s Hospice 10 years ago, said her grandma – who loved arts and crafts – would be very proud.

The 22-year-old from Penwortham, who is training to be a chartered accountant, said: “It seems very fitting that my suggestion was chosen for the craft room as my grandma was very crafty and loved all sorts of things like that.

“She used to love attending day therapy at St Catherine’s – she enjoyed being in the art room and the social side of it too. The butterfly is such a strong emblem of St Catherine’s and means a lot to many people that I thought it would be a good idea for a room name.”

Issy’s mum Lorimer Russell-Hayes added: “My mum absolutely loved St Catherine’s and would be thrilled to hear Issy’s idea was chosen. She’d think The Mill was a fantastic idea!”

Not only do Joanne and Issy have the prestige of seeing their suggestions form part of the pioneering new development, they will also receive a meal for four in The Mill Café as their prize.

Nicola Hanmer, commercial catering manager at St Catherine’s Hospice and The Mill, said: “We were very impressed with all the creative suggestions put forward and would like to thank everyone who took part.

“We were delighted to involve the local community in the room naming process, and look forward to welcoming people to The Mill this autumn.”

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