More than 300 people turned out last Friday to see the new Hospice of St Francis in Berkhamsted take another step towards completion.
The hospice held a topping out ceremony at the new site to mark the final roof tile being put into place on its new £2.5 million facility on the edge of Berkhamsted.
Mayor of Berkhamsted Freda Earl, Mayor of Dacorum Catherine Appleby and MPs David Gauke and Mike Penning were among those who attended the ceremony.
Liz Richards, who organised the event, said many people had found it an emotional day.
She said: "It's just an amazing experience to see all these friends and supporters of the hospice and feel the love. People have said to me that they found it quite a moving ceremony and I think it has inspired people to crack on with helping to raise more funds.
"It's great to just look at what's been achieved in the last year and look forward to the finished product."
The building work is set to be completed by October this year, and it should be up and running by early 2007.
A Gazette campaign has helped bring in more then £270,000 towards the total cost of the new building, but more funds are still required.
Managing Director of the Hospice, Ros Taylor said she was proud to see the new building almost completed a year on from the ground breaking ceremony in June last year.
She said: "I'm very proud of what the team's achieved. It's really been a very complex project that's used the talents and energy of the whole community to get this far.
"We are also honoring the contractors Jarvis here today, who have been excellent and it must be quite rare for a site manager to decide to run a race to raise funds to help complete the project!"
Site manager, Dannie Bonner, who is set to run in a sponsored 10km run for the hospice next month, said he had enjoyed working on the new hospice.
He said: "For me it has been very nice to be involved in something like this. We have also got involved with a lot of things outside the building work. It has been a real team effort."
The symbolic ceremony was carried out by Joan Gentry, a past chairman of trustees representing the volunteers, Joanna James, representing the families of patients, Jenny Burrell, representing the hospice staff, Dannie Bonner from Jarvis, and Toby Russell-Winter, a patient at the hospice who was accompanied by his children Joel and Hope.
ON TOP OF THE WORLD: Celebrating the hospice topping out are (left to right) MPs Mike Penning and David Gauke, patient Toby Russell-Winter and his two children Joel, 10 and Hope, aged six. Top - the new hospice building.
Chairman of Trustees, Jo Connell said the almost completed buildings were even better than she imagined.
She said: "They look fantastic, much, much better than I thought when I saw the plans. The response from the community to our campaign to raise money has also been great. People have done so many things and have come up with so many ideas."
MP Mike Penning, who had the hospice as his charity of the year, said even though the building was almost complete, there was still fundraising work to be done.
He said: "It was a special day today, but it's not just a case of finishing this building, there will still be the running costs. There's more work to do."
Liz Richards added a message to the people of the area.
She said: "Please keep raising funds for us and keep supporting us. We've only got £1.5 million to go."
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