A University of Birmingham PhD student is to feature in a major photographic exhibition highlighting the value of legacies to UK charities.
The work of Laura Vickers, a Natural Environment Research Council-funded PhD student, who is also a member of the British Ecological Society, will be showcased at the exhibition in London later this month.
Legacies through a Lens runs from 13-19 September 2010 at London’s OXO Gallery to celebrate Remember A Charity Week. The 40 photographs that make up the exhibition illustrate the enormous difference that legacies make to the work of UK charities such as the BES.
According to Stephen George, Chair of 'Remember A Charity': ‘Many people in the UK don’t realise that they can give money to charities like the British Ecological Society in this way. But the truth is, after looking after family and friends, a small share of whatever is left can make a real difference to charities like the BES and the invaluable work they do.’
Currently only seven per cent of the UK population remembers a charity in their will.
Laura was selected by the BES and Remember A Charity to be part of the exhibition because she is one of many BES members whose research is made possible by grants from the BES. In 2008, she was awarded a BES Small Ecological Project Grant to search for one of the UK's largest spiders in the 18th century canal tunnels deep beneath the Black Country. The project will shed light on a unique urban and former industrial environment and engage local people with local ecology.
BES grants officer Dominic Burton says: ‘Legacies are very important to the Society: a studentship and three houses to home researchers in the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania would not have happened without the generous support of legacies.’