An £8.5million new hospice will help thousands of terminally ill patients through their last months.

St Wilfrid's Hospice in Eastbourne is to be demolished and replaced by a new building so that it can care for almost twice as many patients.

St Wilfrid's currently cares for 700 patients a year but the new building will have 15 beds and the capacity to deal with up to 1,300.

Chief executive Kara Bishop said: "It is very sad the existing house will have to be taken down but we have to remember that it was built as a family home.

"St Wilfridís has been providing hospice care here for 25 years but the building really is struggling to cope with the growing demand for our care.

"To extend our services we need more clinical facilities, which can only be achieved by rebuilding."

Building is expected to start in June 2009 and take 18 months to finish.

Inpatient and day therapy services will be relocated elsewhere in the town and hospice staff say the quality of care for patients will not be disrupted during this time.

The hospice at home service, where patients are given help and treatment in their own homes, will continue as normal.

St Wilfrid's is preparing a major fund-raising campaign to help towards the cost of the project.

The building started life as a family home in 1881 and was converted into a hospice in 1983.

It has been extended twice to try to meet the growing demand for its services but staff say it will now be better to pull it down and replace it with a purpose-built hospice suitable for 21st Century care.

Judy Taylor, whose step-father was a patient in the hospice last year, said: "The compassionate care he received at St Wilfrid's made his last days so much more comfortable and made a lasting impression on us.

"The environment was peaceful and comfortable and the staff were absolutely brilliant.

I am sure that every effort will be made to ensure that the new building is as welcoming and homely as the existing one.

"I am certain the staff will continue to deliver excellent care in their new surroundings.î"

The hospice, based in Mill Gap Road, is a charity and receives only 15 per cent of its £3.2 million annual running costs from the NHS.

It therefore relies on the support of the community to keep going.