WHEN Tommy Easton's brother was diagnosed with cancer there was only one place he knew Eddie would get the care and attention he needed.

A supporter of the Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice for more than 10 years, businessman Tommy said he decided to take him there.

"My dad passed away in hospital two years ago but they left him in a ward and it wasn't nice to see," remembers Tommy. "He didn't have a dignified end.

"Eddie said, 'Don't let me die in hospital'. I made it my mission to try and get him into the hospice."

Only 49 when he died, Eddie had been his mum Christine's carer, living with her at home in Castlemilk after she was diagnosed with cancer.

"We've had a bit of a time of it," admits Tommy, three years Eddie's junior.

"The day he got out of hospital I brought him to the hospice and he said, 'This is where I want to be. If I'm going to go I want to be here.'

"Edward took some really bad turns in the hospital. We had the priest up three times. But when he came to the hospice he really perked up. He seemed to get a second breath of fresh air when he arrived at the hospice. He wasn't getting the palliative care he needed in hospital."

In those final weeks when Tommy, his mum, wife Annie and sister Christine were keeping a vigil by Eddie's bed, they all said how relaxed and calm he was, thanks to the care of staff at the hospice.

Eddie had to go back to hospital and after falling asleep on the journey back to the hospice, he finally opened his eyes and said, '"I'm home."

In Eddie's final week, Tommy stayed at the hospital with him. It was the care for all of the family, not just Eddie that particularly touched him, extending to support at home for his mum and sister in the weeks and months after Eddie died.

"It wasn't just the care and attention for Eddie, it was the whole family and the way everyone was treated," says Tommy.

"I'll be honest, I missed the place as I was here every day for five or six weeks. We had a lot of comfort knowing that Eddie was here. That made the grieving a lot easier."

Now Tommy and his family are keeping Eddie's memory alive through vital fundraising for the hospice's Brick by Brick Appeal, supported by the Evening Times, to build a new hospice on a site adjacent to Bellahouston Park.

The much-needed purpose-built hospice will be 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 cater for 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.

Through his company VR Construction in Hillington, Tommy has pledged to raise the £60,000 needed to buy a patient en-suite bedroom in the new hospice. After a golf day late last year at Dundonald golf course in Irvine, which he thought would raise £15,000 but actually brought in £27,000, he is nearly half-way to his target already.

He will top that up with the proceeds of a sportsman's lunch at No 10 Hotel in the south side of Glasgow on March 27.

"All the people I'm inviting are all guys who have done well for themselves and they're like me, they have come from Castlemilk or Easterhouse," says Tommy.

"We've all been touched by the same thing and they just want to put something back into the community.

"It's having a knock-on effect. Another businessman who was at the golf day has decided to raise £60,000 for a bedroom at the hospice."

The fundraising will provide a lasting memory of Eddie, a carefree man, full of life who will always be remembered by friends and family as being the life and soul of the party.

"It's nice to be in a position to give something back," says Tommy. "I know what my mum has been through, we lost my dad, and now we have lost Eddie.

"The hospice is a wonderful place, it is all about the care and attention to detail, the dignity they give people.

"They don't just treat the patients, they treat the family too and that's what makes such a difference."

To find out about the Brick by Brick Appeal or to make a donation, visit www.ppwh.org.uk/brickbybrick, call 0141 429 9861 or email brickbybrick@ppwh.org.uk.

Donations, made payable to 'The Brick by Brick Appeal', can be sent to: The Prince & Princess of Wales Hospice, Freepost SCO1724, Glasgow, G5 9BR.