When we look back over our lives, we think about the things that matter the most, our family, our friends and our local community. A gift in your Will to Oxford Hospital Charity will help create a lasting legacy, making a difference to the lives of nurses, doctors, patients and your whole community. For many it is the opportunity to give back in gratitude for the care and compassion either they themselves have experienced, or someone dear to them has. ​

Any gift in a Will can make a difference. After ensuring that those closest to you are provided for, even a small gift to a charity can have a big impact. Just 1%, or more if you wish it, of your total estate can help power our programmes into the future. ​

Find out why some of our supporters decided to leave a gift in their Will to Oxford Hospital Charity. ​

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Raise a cuppa to Ron 

Ron Biles, a lifelong Oxford resident and former NHS caretaker, was known for his love of tea, biscuits, and helping others. After retiring, he spent over ten years volunteering with Oxford Hospitals Charity, helping to send out their magazines and brightening everyone’s day with cakes, laughter, and kindness.

Having experienced major heart surgery himself, Ron was passionate about supporting the NHS and the hospitals he once helped care for. When he passed away in 2018 at the age 83, his final act of generosity was leaving half his estate – an incredible £292,000 – to Oxford Hospitals Charity.

His gift will continue to improve patient care for years to come. So, raise a cuppa (and maybe a biscuit) to Ron – a true gentleman whose kindness and legacy will never be forgotten.

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The Girl Who Lived 

Carol Town was not expected to live beyond 10 years of age. She was born with Eisenmenger’s Syndrome, a hole in the heart that led to irreversible lung damage. Even with this, and other serious health issues, she led an extraordinary, full life – a life marked by a determination not to be defined by her medical history – and one that was characterised by her desire to learn and to care for others.  

Despite her disability and also overcoming cervical cancer, Carol joined the NHS and trained as a hearing therapist and counsellor. After receiving a heart-lung transplant at the age of 33, she learned to run, swim, cycle, and ride horses for the very first time!

In 1993, Carol began attending the Churchill Hospital in Oxford to receive treatment for kidney failure, under the care of the late Dr Desmond Oliver and Dr Chris Winearls. Eventually, in 2005, she underwent a successful kidney transplant after years of dialysis and remained busy and active until the pandemic in 2020.

It’s impossible to convey the mountains that Carol (literally) climbed and the impact she made on the lives of so many others: she truly was one of a kind.

Carol passed away in September 2022 at the age of 68. With her final legacy, she honoured the gifts that she felt had been bestowed upon her through her medical care: the extra life lived with joy, love, and energy. And in doing so, she paid forward her gratitude to future patients in our hospitals by leaving a gift in her Will.

As Carol’s husband, Dr Stephen Town explains, ‘Carol felt she had received so much from the NHS and wanted to give back – this [gift] was her way of doing so that others might benefit.’

These gifts fund improvements for patients and staff across all our hospitals – the John Radcliffe, Horton General, Churchill, Oxford Children’s Hospitals, and the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre.

‘Legacies, from special people like Carol, make the world of difference to our hospitals. She was a lovely patient who put up with all that we doctors inflicted on her with stoicism and charm,’ Dr Chris Winearls told us.

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