A Year of Generosity: Reflecting on Legacy Gifts in 2025

Legacy gifts are incredibly impactful. They give you the opportunity to create a lasting legacy by supporting the causes you care about, whether that's funding vital health research, opening doors for talented students, or enriching the cultural life of our community. These gifts are far more than financial contributions, they are a lasting commitment that shape the future of our University and the lives we touch through education and research. 

In 2025, legacy gifts continued to make a profound difference through driving progress in medical research, an area where the University has long been a leader. Dr Carmela De Santo, Associate Professor in the Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy, expressed gratitude for a gift from Peter Handley that is enabling her team to explore next-generation CAR-T cell therapies for childhood cancers such as sarcoma. This research offers hope for children with very limited treatment options and stands as a powerful testament to the impact of legacy giving.

Our legacy pledgers each have their own passions and causes they care deeply about. In the past year, one generous gift was left by Josephine Marcon to support brain injury research. Combined with funding from The Medlock Charitable Trust, this legacy is helping to fund a project led by Professor Sam Lucas, an integrative physiologist whose research focuses on brain vascular health. Through this support, Professor Lucas is advancing work on the detection and monitoring of concussion in amateur and grassroots sports, an area with the potential to make a real difference to athlete safety and wellbeing.

Unrestricted legacy gifts have been equally transformative, giving the University the flexibility to respond to pressing priorities such as our commitment to student support. Thanks to these legacies, we have funded scholarships, bursaries, and awards, including contributions to our flagship Pathways to Birmingham programme, which helps talented students access higher education. We are also deeply grateful to donors who have passionately supported students in the past year by directing their gifts to specific causes, including the Medical School hardship fund, PhD scholarships and fellowships, and even the departments they once studied in.

One such gift came from alumnus Fran D’Alcorn, whose legacy to the School of History and Cultures has enabled the creation of the Fran D’Alcorn Memorial Award, a prestigious postgraduate scholarship providing tuition fee support. Fran’s friend shared that she ‘would have been delighted to have an award named after her’. A lifelong educator who marked history papers for Cambridge for many years, Fran is remembered as a highly intelligent, feisty, and inspiring woman who ‘remained a teacher to the end’.

Legacy gifts also strengthen our academic excellence. A gift from Lilian Hulme supported our Archaeology department, funding a new professorship in Roman Archaeology. Thanks to this gift, Professor Adam Rogers joined us at the start of the 2025/26 academic year and is already having a positive impact on student teaching, as well as contributing to the wider School, College and University. Lilian's generosity has helped enhance the teaching and research that happens within the field of archaeology at the University.

Beyond advancing research and teaching, legacy gifts enable us to fulfil our civic mission, bringing culture, learning, and discovery to the wider community. Our campus is a cultural hub, home to the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, the Lapworth Museum of Geology, and Winterbourne House and Garden. Ann Davies, a dedicated supporter of Winterbourne, left a generous legacy gift that has helped refurbish the gift shop, ensuring this much-loved attraction remains welcoming and enjoyable for all who visit.

Each of these legacies reflects a deep trust in our mission and a shared belief in the power of education and research to change lives. We are honoured to steward these gifts with care and purpose, ensuring they make the difference their donors hoped for.

If you would like to explore the difference you could make through a gift in your will, please reach out to us using the details on our website or you can request a legacy brochure. You can also read more inspirational stories from our legacy donors. Thank you again to every single person who has pledged a legacy gift to Birmingham - your generosity shapes lives for generations to come.