LIKE many people, Rob and Gill Ibbotson do have a will…but it’s a will that was made more than a decade ago and does not reflect the changes in their lives that have taken place in that time.
So when they saw an advert for the annual St Luke’s Will Month, they realised this would be the ideal opportunity to bring their affairs right up to date.
“We hadn’t done anything with our Will for a long time, at least 10 years,” Rob admits.
“We had moved house and our circumstances had changed and so we thought ‘here is an opportunity to write something into the Will in favour of St Luke’s.’
“We wanted our wishes to be known for what we wanted to happen to our estate in the event of both of us dying as well.
“And because we’ve got no dependants it prompted us to think not only can we get our affairs back in order and bang up to date but also do something to support St Luke’s.
“The solicitors do it free of charge and we thought that rather than waiting till we pop off to get a donation, we thought St Luke’s could have £150 straight away! We’re not planning on going any time soon so you can have that now!”
The couple were particularly pleased that their will update would also benefit St Luke’s because they had personal family experience of the charity’s high standards of patient care – Rob’s dad and his sister’s father-in-law had both been patients.
“It was easy to book an appointment and even though we didn’t get in to the first solicitors we picked off the list, that was purely because they didn’t have time slots when we could go with our work schedules,” Rob explains.
“We went down to the next solicitors who were easiest to get to in town, Best Solicitors - they were easy to get to and convenient.
“I rang up and I was offered a couple of different time slots. We went down twice - once to discuss it and once to sign it.”
Having started the updating process, Rob and Gill decided there was one more thing they wanted to do – leave a special gift for St Luke’s in the new will.
"We did it purely because of the great experience and care that was given to my dad and because we knew that the same level of care had been given to friends and family,” says Rob.
"Once it was done we felt satisfied really because we’d been talking about it for so long. We felt at peace in the sense that you know that at that moment you have everything in order. It’s just one thing ticked off the list.”
To support Will Month visit Will Month