A CHARITY that is celebrating getting the funding to secure the future of the building it calls home has said that it is now looking forward to enhancing services in 2023 after securing crucial funds to begin the renovation of its base this year.

As the Cambrian News reported in January, Aberystwyth and District Hospice at Home Volunteers (known as HAHAV) celebrated before Christmas following an award of £300,000 from the Welsh Government’s Community Facilities Programme.

The grant enabled HAHAV to complete the purchase of Plas Antaron in Aberystwyth following a fund-raising drive to meet the £500,000 needed to buy the building outright with its lease running out.

The former hotel has been leased by the charity since 2019 and was transformed into a ‘Living Well Centre’ for people with chronic, life-limiting illness, carers, and bereaved people.

This week, Dr Alan Axford, HAHAV’s Chair of Trustees and one of the charity’s founding volunteers, said the charity was celebrating again after being granted more than £400,000.

The cash will allow HAHAV “to proceed with the first phase of renovations” this year at Plas Antaron.

Dr Axford, who said the charity are “currently finalising the legalities” of buying the building, wrote in a letter to HAHAV volunteers and partners that the charity had “applied to the National Lottery in the Community Fund to afford the first phase of our ambitious renovations plans, to enable us to commence transforming the building to improve accessibility, ambience, and the facilities that we can offer to our clients and other building users.”

“We also applied for some funding to support running costs, which will enable the services we offer at Plas Antaron to continue, and indeed grow, over the coming three years,” he said.

“This total combined funding request was just over £413,000.

“At the end of last week we were notified that our application had been successful, meaning we are able to proceed with the first phase of our renovations this year.

“We will be going out to tender in the imminent future, to select a contractor to undertake this work, which we anticipate taking place over the summer and early autumn.

“We would like to express our sincerest thanks to the Lottery for this incredible support, and to all volunteers who have participated in the consultation and coproduction process as part of this project.”

As well as generous donations from the public towards the ambitious project to purchase and transform the building to provide a long-term solution for HAHAV’s essential services in Ceredigion, funding has also been secured from the Welsh Government, Ceredigion County Council and Aberystwyth Town Council.