ALTHOUGH we have always taken great pride in raising cash for our local hospices, we have always wondered why the state does not pay more for their services.

Both St Anne’s Hospice and St David’s Foundation perform an utterly invaluable service in caring for people who are often terminally ill and whose families are suffering enormous stress.

By their fantastic work, both of these charities make the most profound time in a person's life as comfortable and dignified as it can be before they pass away.

Most of our readers know at least someone who has been helped by one of the charities and they know what an amazing job they do.

But why doesn’t the state play a bigger role?

It would be petty to carp about the enormous amount of money that is given out in benefits. Most of it, we trust, goes to those who are in need.

Equally, the NHS is a bottomless bucket for taxpayers’ cash, but still we have long waiting lists and problems with the ambulance service.

Would it be asking too much that organisations like St Anne’s and St David's receive the lions share of their funding from the taxpayer, via the Assembly, instead of the one third they currently receive?

As we reveal today, St Anne’s has had to raise a whopping £8.5 million during its 15-year life, just to allow it to keep going.

Thankfully, local people have been phenomenally generous and it is still going strong, thanks to the dedication of the fundraisers and the work of the sisters and staff.

But it needs £1.25 million a year to keep going ­ a relatively modest sum in government terms.

Likewise the devoted team who keep St David’s afloat are the real heroes behind the scenes.

But is their work really some sort of luxury that we don’t really need?

Is that why the government does not provide all of the finance?

Or is it that politicians turn a blind eye because they know that they can rely on the tireless work of the volunteers to save them the shame of seeing these organisations go under if they were to rely solely on the state for their funding?