Reprieve for MS care home with last-minute rescue bid

LEUCHIE House, the closure-threatened respite home for people with multiple sclerosis, has been granted a reprieve just days before it was due to shut for ever.

The Multiple Sclerosis Society, which planned to close the home in North Berwick on Friday, has agreed to keep it open for another six months to allow manager Mairi O'Keefe to establish a new independent charity to take it over.

She plans to offer more beds and open the centre up to people with other long-term conditions, something the MS Society was unable to do under its own charitable aims. The new venture will also aim to cater for people with the highest dependency needs.

Ms O'Keefe said she was delighted the MS Society had agreed to continue funding Leuchie House in the meantime.

She said: "The society is working with us to ensure we have got time to set up properly. We have the promise of transitional funding from other parties for the next few years. But as with all charities, we will need support and donations to really get this off the ground."

The MS Society's announcement in June that it was withdrawing from direct provision of respite care and closing its four homes across the UK sparked a massive campaign to save Leuchie House. More than 30,000 people signed a petition to keep it open.

It seemed the pleas had fallen on deaf ears and a couple of weeks ago there was a farewell party for the volunteers at the centre.

Now the society has announced it received a proposal last week from Ms O'Keefe to keep the home running. It said she had the backing of a number of organisations. And it added: "It is only in the last few days that funding arrangements have become clear."

Ms O'Keefe said: "It's not the best time to set up a new venture, but we are confident with the support that has been shown over the last six months we will succeed."

MS Society chief executive Simon Gillespie said: "We'll now work closely with Mairi in a bid to make the new venture a success, with a view to transferring the centre next year."

Scottish Labour leader and East Lothian MSP Iain Gray, who supported the campaign to save Leuchie House, welcomed the reprieve.

He said: "I have promised to work with Mairi and give her whatever support I can in developing a business case and seeking alternative funders."