Final Cheque

The final payment to the constructors of the Children's Hospital for Wales for £710,000 was yesterday handed over by eight-year-old Charlotte Tonge and her sister Georgia, five, from Cardiff.

Pictured above: Charlotte and Georgia Tonge with the final installment for the building of the first phase of the Children's Hospital for Wales.

The Noah's Ark Appeal has now raised nearly £7 million for the first phase of the first children's hospital in Wales. The money raised so far by the Noah's Ark Appeal has helped to pay for the construction, art programme, and £1m of new equipment.

Building work on the first phase of the hospital is nearing completion. The first patients will be admitted to the Children's Hospital early next year.

It is hoped that building work on the second phase of the hospital, which will accommodate the operating theatres, can begin early next year.

The second part of the hospital, to be built next door, will replace the pre-fabricated buildings at the University Hospital of Wales which have been used to treat sick children for decades.

Charlotte, who was formerly a patient at the old children's wards at UHW said: "The new hospital is a lot brighter and friendlier than the old wards."

"I wouldn't mind being ill so much if I had to come to a place like this," she said of the new hospital.

Dad Nick, a 32-year-old accounts manager, added, "This new hospital is so much more child friendly - it's a lot more welcoming from a child's perspective."

Lyn Jones, Chairman of Trustees said: "This is a historic day. The hospital is now the children's; this is what we have all been working towards."