YOU do not have to be a builder to help build Glasgow's new hospice.

The message of the new advertising campaign for the Prince & Princess Of Wales Hospice is loud and clear: Everyone can do their bit.

Comedienne Karen Dunbar used a screwdriver as a microphone, chef Nick Nairn contemplated lunch on the go with a pair of workmen and television presenter Carol Smillie sat on a pile of pallets wearing workmen's boots and an evening dress.

The Brick By Brick Appeal, backed by the Evening Times, to raise the £15 million needed for a new purpose-build hospital is well under way.

Scottish celebrities, from Karen, Carol and Nick to Scotland football manager Gordon Strachan and former professional snooker player Stephen Hendry, are giving it their full support.

The advertising campaign launched today will be seen on billboards across the city.

"The campaign is fantastic, it's a really clever idea," says Karen, cheekily adding: "They had the basic idea and I added a wee bit of magic and sparkle."

Karen feels privileged to be involved with the hospice. "It is instrumental in Glasgow life. I feel that what the hospice brings to the city is invaluable," she says.

Along with the advertising campaign we can reveal the artist's impressions of the interior of the new hospice, to be built on a site adjacent to Bellahouston Park.

There are bright, spacious light-filled rooms with comfortable corners for patients, friends and family to get together, as well as sanctuary spaces for quiet time. Full-length windows look on to gardens and the park beyond.

"It's stunning - but so necessary," says Karen. "As much as they have done such an amazing job where they are at the present site in the city centre, we can always do with more.

"For Glasgow to be getting behind it and helping us build this vital new facility, it really sums up the people of Glasgow for me.

"They have coped very well with the facilities they had, but they knew they needed more. It is great we are finally getting that."

Chef Nick says he decided to get involved with the hospice about a year ago.

"I have two friends who spent their last days in hospices and it was an eye opener," he says.

"Until you experience it you do not appreciate how important that period is and how difficult it is for everybody: the families, the friends and for the sufferers.

"Everybody deserves to be looked after in their final days. I would hope there were enough hospices in Scotland that were sufficiently resourced to make that a reality."

Every year the hospice cares for more than 1200 patients and their families.

The focus of the staff is to give the highest quality of care to everyone who needs their help.

Due to the constraints of the present facility, housed in four townhouses in Carlton Place, Gorbals, it cannot grow any further.

The new hospice will enable existing services to be enhanced and allow for a lower age limit.

This move will provide a much-needed purpose-built hospice for the people of Glasgow living with life-limiting illnesses, as well as those requiring end-of-life care.

The new building will see services developed to look after patients as young as 15 for the first time.

It will also offer patients single private en-suite rooms with access to social space and landscaped gardens for everyone to enjoy.

"I have seen the blueprint outlines for the new hospice and it looks fantastic," says Nick.

The hospice is developing its services to widen the access of young people to hospice care.

There is a recognised gap in services for this age group, with the number of young adults with palliative care needs increasing year by year.

The young people's lounge in the new building will ensure a welcoming and comfortable look that is contemporary and attractive.

Nick says: "I have young children and find it very hard to imagine that somebody of that age should be suffering from a terminal illness.

"I know it happens and it is desperately sad. But we can't just ignore it and sweep it under the carpet. It does happen so let's do our best to try and make those days good days."

Cleverly designed with modern audio visual technology, the new sensory room will be a place for any patient or family member to find a balance of stimulation and comfort.

Meanwhile, in the sanctuary people of all faiths and none will find a space to encourage contemplation and reflection - through the use of intricate woodwork design, clever lighting, running water and the provision of religious items when needed, stored away when not. For those who wish it, it will be a place of prayer.

Hospice chief executive Rhona Baillie said: "This development will be a major step forward in the provision of palliative care services for the people of Glasgow.

"It will also provide us with the flexibility to deliver and improve our current services and lower our age limit to those aged 15 and above.

"Gold standard care needs a gold standard building and it is thanks to Glasgow City Council, which has gifted us this land for a peppercorn rent, that this has become a reality."

angela.mcmanus@ eveningtimes.co.uk