Gareth’s blog: A legacy for the future

Protecting our future

Our promise is that: for as long as we’re here, no family in West Yorkshire will have to face the loss of their child alone.

Of course, to deliver that promise, we need to protect our future. And that means that, as well as looking at where our income is coming from today, we also need to consider where it will come from in the future too.

Planning ahead while remaining focussed on the here and now – it’s a difficult balance to strike. Particularly in the current climate of increasing costs and uncertainty around funding, although we hope that with the change of government, that we will see better support and a more consistent sustainable funding model for hospices across the UK. For children’s hospices, we hope to see positive news about the national children’s hospice grant.

Our incredibly generous donors, supporters and volunteers are crucial to our ability to be here for families right now. But there’s also an easy way for you to help us long into the future too, by leaving a lasting legacy through a gift in your will.

Fewer than half of UK adults have made a will

There are many reasons why it’s important to have a will:

• To protect the future of your family and loved ones
• To think about your wishes and make them clear
• To make sure that your finances are in order.

We know that taking the first step to make a will can be a daunting task, and often one that sits on the ‘to-do’ list for a while. That’s why we offer a free online will writing service with our partners, Farewill. We even work with a local solicitor who can help face-to-face with more complicated wills, like those involving multiple properties for example.

People can often find themselves prompted to make or change a will at a significant life moment. For me, it was when my wife and I had our first child. We’d been married for a couple of years, but it wasn’t until having a dependant, that we realised that not having a will left so many unanswered questions – not only about our finances, but about who would take care of our child, who would support them financially and how they would be supported financially. Although it wasn’t easy, we were relieved to finally get things in order. At the same time, we decided to leave gifts to a number of charities that mean a lot to both of us – one of those charities is Forget Me Not.

In 2022/23, people in the UK pledged a whopping £4bn to charity through gifts in wills. Imagine if more people in the UK had wills, what a difference that could make to the future of charities across the UK.

Click here to find out more about how you can leave a legacy that truly helps us to deliver our promise in the future.