Ex-soldier leaves £200,000 in charity will

A charity will made by a world war two veteran has named cancer charities as the beneficiaries of his estate, leaving a total of £200,000 to five third sector organisations.

The Evening Gazette reports George Atkinson decided, when making a will, to leave his worldly possessions to organisations fighting the disease, which killed his wife Joyce in 1998.

Neighbour and close friend Margaret McCabe commented: "It’s a marvellous gesture. I think it’s great. You don’t often hear of this in this day and age."

Charity wills can support worthy causes and are an excellent method for donations-reliant groups to raise money, with many - such as animal welfare advocates - receiving substantial proportions of their income in this way.

He instructed the executor of the will to deliver the funds to establishments "concerned with cancer", of which £50,000 each was given to the Teesside Hospice Care Foundation, Middlesbrough’s James Cook University Hospital oncology department and Zoe’s Place baby hospice in Normanby.

Published by Kevin Round