Melissa Vining held back the tears as the keys to the former Clifton Club Inn - now the official new home of the Southland Charity Hospital - were handed over this afternoon by the Invercargill Licencing Trust (ILT). 

Mrs Vining had approached the ILT looking for fundraising support for the hospital, but never in a million years did she expect to receive a whole building for it. 

"I certainly didn't expect this and it's just incredibly overwhelming that this is going to be the home of the Southland Charity Hospital."

"I feel like if Blair was here he would be really loud and shouty - I feel like crying - but I just cannot thank the ILT and all the volunteers [enough] that have made this possible in such a short space of time, so thank you."

The Southland Charity Hospital is Blair Vining's legacy. He tragically died from bowel cancer in 2018 but before then, it was his and his wife Melissa's dream to make sure no one else in the community should have to go without the health care they need. 

ILT Board chairman Alan Dennis said the ILT supported hundreds of community projects but supporting this project was something special. 

Southland Charity Hospital board member Chris Menzies sprays the Champagne in celebration of the handover of the Clifton Inn building. PHOTO: Lucy Henry

"They say that it's better to give than to receive and in this case that's certainly true. [We] couldn't have found a better project... it's something that's very worthwhile.”

The board chairman of the Southland Charity Hospital is Dr Murray Pfeifer, he was awarded the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons' Rural Surgeon's Award for his commitment to medicine in Southland and Otago and knows first-hand the kind of positive impact the charity hospital will have on serving the needs of the community. 

"As a practising clinician, every day we see examples of people who need care but can't get access to care. People who don't qualify for public care... and yet are unable to afford private care."

"The suffering that people in this situation have to endure remains pretty much unseen and unnoticed. This hospital will make a huge difference."

He said the building had given the SCH Trust such an "enormous boost and head start" in getting the hospital open and ready to serve the community. 

"If you were building [the SCH] from the ground up you couldn't have a building that was better designed, [than the Clifton Inn]."

As well as acquiring a new building, the SHC Trust has also recently employed a General Manager, Helen Robinson, and it also received the resource consent for the building works from the Invercargill City Council today. 

Mrs Vining said the team still needed project managers and trades people to come on board to help with the next phase of the building.

Buy-A-Brick campaign surpasses 5000 bricks target

Blair Vining believed if everybody in the south bought a brick, together Southland could build a hospital.

Southlanders rallied behind the cause today - donning red, black and white clothes in honour of buy-a-brick-for-Blair-day. And today, on "Buy A Brick Day" the Southland Charity Hospital not only reached its target of 5000 bricks sold, but had surpassed it by 267 bricks as of 5pm today. 

Mrs Vining said $1 million was needed to begin the initial building works for the hospital in September, and that wasn't far off now. 

A further $1 million will be required for hospital equipment and the total cost of the hospital build will be $4.5 million. 

Fundraising will be on-going as the Southland Charity Hospital will not receive any Government funding. It will rely solely on donations, grants, and the generosity of the wider community keen to help southerners in need. 

Mrs Vining said she had hoped 5000 bricks would be sold by the end of the month but in true Southland spirit, support had flooded in and the bricks sales had smashed through the roof. 

There have also been 215 $500 plaques sold to be hung in the Blair Vining Memorial Garden at the hospital.