Leave a gift in your will

Make Surgery your Legacy

The Royal College of Surgeons of England has benefitted from the generosity of donors who have enabled its work to grow and flourish. Regardless of size, each gift to us has had a direct impact on the future of surgery and patient care.

Surgeons save, extend and improve the lives of tens of thousands of people throughout the UK every day. Our work is not limited to specific illnesses or areas of disease but supports innovative care for all ages across all specialties.

If you choose to leave a gift to the College in your will, you will be continuing to play a vital part in maintaining and supporting the enhancement of surgical care for patients.

Once you have provided for your family and loved ones, leaving a gift in your will to us allows us to plan for the future with confidence. It could be the most transformative decision you ever make, and it need not cost you a penny in your lifetime.

How you can make a difference

Every gift, small or large, makes a real difference to the lives of new generations of surgical students and their patients. Legacies are key in helping us shape the future so that patients receive the very best care when they need it the most and this generosity means we can continue to strive for the next life-changing breakthrough in surgical care.

Legacy gifts can support:

• Educational bursaries
• Surgical research across all surgical disciplines
• Conservation of heritage collections
• Investment in new facilities and equipment
• Projects improving accessibility to our services and collections
• Postgraduate research grants
• Learning and e-learning projects and initiatives

By leaving a gift in your will, you will be helping the future of surgery. Please do not hesitate to get in touch with Nicola Extance-Vaughan to discuss your wishes in confidence.

How we recognise your gift

We are grateful to everyone who has chosen to remember RCS England in his or her will. We appreciate that leaving a legacy gift is a personal decision that you may prefer to keep private, but we would love the opportunity to thank you if you are happy to share your intentions with us.

When possible we are honoured to be able to acknowledge the generosity of those who pledge a gift to us in their wills and to celebrate the impact of the legacy gifts we are to receive.

As a supporter who has chosen to leave us a gift in your will, you will receive updates on our work, appeals and invitations to special events. We are also able to recognise some legacy gifts through various naming opportunities. Please do contact us to discuss these.

Legacy Impact

Legacy gifts - a new bookcase and the hands of a master surgeon

Mr Bryn Terence Williams (1939–2018) served as a cardiothoracic surgeon from 1974 to his retirement. His meticulous attention to detail and high standards led to a reputation at home and abroad of his willingness to take on complex and high risk cases.

For many years, with the support of RCS England, he organised an overseas registrar training programme, providing advanced cardiac surgical training for one or two years for trainees from abroad, who then returned to senior positions in their own countries. As part of this commitment to overseas training, he also arranged for UK surgical teams to visit cardiac centres in Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey, India, Kenya and Kuwait.

A lifetime interest in microscopes and Leica cameras together with the link in precision engineering led to his endeavours to improve the hardware associated with cardiac surgery. Examples include the Williams–Barefoot electromagnetic flow probe, a haemostatic cuff designed to control haemorrhage from suture lines in badly diseased vessels, and the left ventricular resectoscope, an instrument that facilitates left ventricular septal resection in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Mr Williams’ legacy funded a bookcase in the new research library of our recently refurbished building and the Faculty of Dental Surgery was honoured to accept the life-size bronze casting of his hands made by Neil Lawson Baker, a sculptor and past dental surgeon.