A CHILDREN’S hospice will have to wait until Christmas to learn whether millions of pounds of vital funding has been lost in the Icelandic bank collapse.

Until then the Naomi House charity are facing having to draw on valuable reserves to cover running costs at its Hampshire centre that cares for terminally-ill children.

The hospice had hoped for a decision within two weeks, but has been told that it could take up to two months.

Khalid Aziz, chairman of the trustees of Naomi House in Sutton Scotney, has labelled the delay “a travesty”.

He also warned that it might have to use long-term reserves to pay bills in the meantime.

Naomi House is pressing the Government for a guarantee that it will get back £5.7m – 37 per cent of its cash – that it put in the failed Kaupthing Singer and Friedlander bank.

Professor Aziz said: “The latest developments still associate us with organisations such as local authorities, which clearly we are not. What is happening is clearly a travesty. The long drawn out process that this would see us suffer could be devastating to our families.

“It is dreadful that an organisation like Naomi House should be forced to consider options that are far from, ideal at this time through no fault of our own.

“In the scheme of the economic situation this sum is a drop in the ocean, but it means the whole world to the families and children who visit Naomi House.”

Winchester MP, Mark Oaten, is now trying to highlight its plight with an early day motion in Westminster, and is urging politicians across the region to back it.

The hospice not only cares for children in Hampshire, but as far afield as Sussex, Oxfordshire, and the Isle of Wight.

As a result, Mr Oaten hopes to galvanise MPs from across the region to back an early day motion he has submitted jointly with Tory Basingstoke MP, Maria Miller.

One piece of good news at Naomi House is that early indications show that supporters are rallying around the hospice.

Its fundraising manager, Jane Tabor, said last week that many people had phoned or written to them with letters of support, but added it was too early to say if there had been a surge in donations.