Gifts in Wills
Will you remember Royal Papworth Hospital in your Will? You could change the lives of heart and lung patients across the world and find a cure with your lasting legacy.
Donations from our supporters allows Royal Papworth Hospital to go above and beyond in the care that we provide for our patients, no matter the circumstances. In the last year, Royal Papworth Hospital has treated over 300 of some of the sickest coronavirus patients in the region. During this time, Royal Papworth has continued to provide emergency surgery throughout the pandemic, including heart and vital research has continued apace to find a cure to these devasting diseases.
In the UK, more than 40,000 people under the age of 75 in the UK die from heart and circulatory diseases each year and it is estimated that 7.6 million are currently living with heart and circulatory diseases - this is more than those living with cancer and Alzheimer’s disease combined. Lung disease on the other hand is responsible for 20% of deaths. Together heart and lung account for some of the top five causes of death worldwide and it is vital we fund research to end the heartbreak caused by these illnesses.
Nearly half our income comes from Gifts in Wills; they are vital source of funds that enable us to transform the lives of our patients. Knowing that our supporters have included a gift in their Will ensures that we can continue to grow to deliver life-changing projects, now and for many years to come.
Thanks to the generosity of our supporters we have already funded numerous research projects which are not only transforming the lives of Royal Papworth patients, but transforming the lives of patients across the globe.
Project Breathe
Royal Papworth Hospital is proud to be home of Project Breathe, a first of its kind trial, that has a wide range of benefits for a patient with Cystic Fibrosis. It has the potential to change the way patients with CF manage their care, using equipment and monitoring software to take control of the condition outside of hospital. They can safely avoid routine appointments at their CF centre if their health is stable, reducing the risk of cross infection that comes with visiting hospital, ultimately minimising disruption in their lives.
DCD Transplant
In response to the worldwide shortage of donor hearts, the DCD transplantation technique was developed by Royal Papworth Hospital with funding from the Charity. This innovative technique has enabled surgeons at Royal Papworth Hospital to utilise donor hearts which were previously considered too damaged to transplant, leading to an increase the number of people receiving a heart transplant at Royal Papworth Hospital by almost 50% over the last five years.
The technique has now been developed in collaboration with Great Ormond Street Hospital to provide DCD heart transplants for eligible children leading to six paediatric heart transplant in 2020. The teams at RPH and GOSH are working together to develop a new machine that will enable DCD heart donation from even smaller infants, opening up a new dawn of transplantation for babies and young children, where donors are the most scarce.
Heart and Lung Research Institute
With over 7 million affected by heart and lung disease in the UK, the building of the Heart and Lung Research Institute (HLRI), is an initiative that the Charity is proud to be supporting. The HLRI will be home to over 380 scientists and state-of-the-art laboratories in genomics, population sciences, research into cellular mechanisms of disease and translational science. It will also include a special ten bed facility where the first-in-patient studies of new treatments can be conducted, at the forefront of shaping the way cardiovascular diseases are treated internationally.