You're Amazing (Winter/Spring 2016) (Winter/Spring 2016) | Page 8

A special gift We were incredibly grateful to receive the generous legacy gift of £5,000 from Ian Bennett, which his mother Sylvia and sister Julie arranged in thanks for the care Julie received at St Thomas’. The gift has helped support the St John’s Institute of Dermatology research tissue bank. This is where tissue samples are stored and – with patients’ consent – used for ongoing research to improve treatment and care. The legacy gift is also supporting a project to identify gene mutations in DNA that are likely to Your en will writt f o r f re e back cause certain types of skin cancer. ‘For patients with more advanced stages of skin lymphoma, in most situations there are a lack of treatments,’ says Professor Sean Whittaker, Professor of Cutaneous Oncology at Guy’s and St Thomas’. Leaving a gift in your will is a wonderful way to give back. As members of the National Free Wills Network, we are pleased to offer any supporter aged over 50 the opportunity to have a simple will written by a qualified solicitor for FREE. How it works: 1. Call us on 020 7848 4701. 2. The National Free Wills Network sends you an information pack with a list of local solicitors who are part of the Network. 3. You make an appointment with your chosen solicitor who will write your will. 4. We pay the solicitor at a discounted rate. There is no obligation to leave a gift in your will to Guy’s, St Thomas’ or Evelina London but it would be wonderful if you choose to do so. Even leaving a small percentage of your estate, after you have provided for friends and family, will have a lasting impact on the future of care we can offer. Find out more at www.supportgstt.org.uk/freewill 8 Giving ‘Without research driving new knowledge, the chance of a new treatment coming along which works is low. Support like this makes all the difference.’ Julie was treated for lymphoma at St Thomas’ in 2005 and 2006. Since having the all-clear she continues to visit Professor Whittaker at Guy’s for annual check-ups. ‘Losing her son was very difficult for my mum, so she felt that she was at least doing something positive with the money that Ian had left,’ says Julie. ‘We felt comforted by doing it, like we were giving something back because all the care and attention that I’d had was so amazing.’ How y our You helped bring suppor t has some Christmas made a cheer to every patient diffe rence who spent the festive period in hospital. They all received a stocking, funded by donations to the Samaritan Fund, which is managed by Guy’s and St Thomas’ Chaplaincy Team. Our volunteers packed more than 1,100 stockings with treats for our patients to enjoy on Christmas Day. Birthday thanks for breast cancer treatment Alison Hookham was treated for breast cancer in 2009, which included five weeks of radiotherapy treatment at St Thomas’ Hospital. She recently celebrated a special birthday and, in lieu of presents, asked friends and family to donate to Guy’s Cancer Centre Appeal and a local breast cancer support charity in south east London. She raised an amazing £2,000 to share between the two. Many thanks to Alison for her support! To find out how you too can support the appeal, go to www.supportgstt.org.uk/ cancercentre Alison with Ivan Harbour and Lord Richard Rogers from Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, the architects who designed the new Cancer Centre 9