St Wilfrid's Communications Manager, Madeleine Green, explains the importance of gifts in wills to help the hospice continue their important work of providing the local community with end-of-life care and support for those with life limiting illnesses
Every year St Wilfrid's Hospice see over 2,300 people in their Inpatient Unit or Living Well Hub at the hospice building in Eastbourne, or in people’s own homes across the Eastbourne, Seaford, Hailsham, Uckfield, Heathfield areas. The hospice supports people with life-limiting illnesses, helping them to live well at the end of their lives and supporting their family and friends.
As a charity they rely on voluntary gifts to support over 70% of their vital work, and gifts in wills play an important role in that. Gifts in wills have always been the bedrock of St Wilfrid’s Hospice income, covering the cost of care for one in three of the people they see each year. They are the reason St Wilfrid’s has been able to survive and evolve over the last few decades and is crucial to enable them to meet the needs of their community over the next decade.
Gifts in wills come in all shapes and sizes – from a 1% gift of what is left after a person’s loved ones have been looked after, to entire estates. No matter the size, a gift in a will is a special legacy, as Lin Fulbrook explains: "The percentage gift that my mother left to St Wilfrid’s Hospice in her will meant that the charity received nearly £3,000. My parents’ gift to the hospice has ensured funding of another patient and their family’s end of life care for five days, something that brings so much comfort to us as a family."
Lin’s parents, Dennis and Patricia Munton, first included a gift for St Wilfrid’s Hospice in their will as a dedication to their eldest son, who died just before his 40th birthday. Their decision was reinforced when Dennis, and then Patricia, were both cared for by St Wilfrid’s Hospice. Lin’s brother Nigel picks up the story:
"In 2011 Dad became ill and was cared for at home by the St Wilfrid’s Hospice Community Team. They visited my parents every day until Dad died at home in January 2012.
"When Mum became ill in 2019 I became her main carer. She was also visited by the St Wilfrid’s Hospice Care at Home and Community Nursing teams and lived two years longer than her GP had expected, something I put down to her incredible determination and spirit.
"As she neared the end of her life Mum wanted to stay at home, but her medical needs became too demanding so she spent her final eight weeks on the Inpatient Unit at St Wilfrid’s.
"Mum was an avid gardener, her and Dad had won the Eastbourne In Bloom Award for their own garden, so she cherished the hospice gardens and how well they were kept. She particularly loved it when her bed was wheeled outside so that she could hear the birds and see the planting. We put bird feeders outside her room, and she loved all the wildlife these attracted, including a noisy woodpecker.
"She said to me 'If I can’t be at home, I couldn’t be in a better place.' It was so peaceful at St Wilfrid’s and that was what Mum wanted."
September is St Wilfrid’s Hospice’s make a will month, an opportunity to have your will written whilst supporting the hospice. Local solicitors who are supporting the scheme will write a sample will, free of charge, in exchange for leaving a gift in your will or a suggested minimum donation to St Wilfrid’s of £150.
You can find a list of participating solicitors at www.stwhospice.org/make-a-will or by contacting Roz Bristowe on 01323 434214 or at rozelyn.bristowe@stwhospice.org.
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