Could you leave a life-changing legacy ?
“It’s an honour to be Patron of Mercy Ships. Volunteers bring brilliant surgery, knowledge, and medical skills, from all over the world. The success Mercy Ships has had in training doctors, dentists, and medics to carry out the work in the future in their own countries – that is a real legacy.”
HRH The Princess Royal Mercy Ships International Patron
Many of us share a simple dream: to leave the world a little better than we found it. At Mercy Ships, we live out this dream by bringing hope and healing to those without access to safe surgical care. Since 1978, we’ve been committed to transforming lives through free, safe surgery and surgical education on board our fleet of hospital ships.
Every single gift to Mercy Ships helps to bring life-transforming medical care, leaving individuals, families, and communities forever changed.
Legacy gifts are one powerful way to share joy long into the future. When you leave a gift to Mercy Ships in your Will, you can continue transforming lives for many years to come. Your love will live on through every restored smile, answered prayer, and opportunity to heal.
Mercy Ships UK has been blessed to receive more than £9 million from legacy gifts in the past five years, which has gone on to fund free surgeries, hospital beds and wheelchairs for our patients, and training programmes for many local doctors and nurses.
Through a legacy gift, not only can you leave the world a little better, but you can change someone’s world – for good.
With gratitude,
Clive Mitchell Chief Executive Officer (Interim) Mercy Ships UK
Yei couldn’t wait to hold and kiss her newborn baby — but the first moment she saw little Umu, she felt shocked and scared. Umu was born with a tumour pressing on her face and neck. As the mass grew, Yei was terrified she would lose her only daughter.
The family desperately sought help, but there was not a single surgeon who could treat Umu’s condition in Sierra Leone.
Finally, when she was three years old, little Umu was brought to the Global Mercy for life-saving, free surgery on board. There was no time to waste: “She was at very high risk of suffocation with continued growth of the tumour,” said volunteer surgeon, Dr Gary Parker.
Thanks to generous gifts from donors like you, Umu’s precious life was saved and her family’s fear has been replaced with joy and hope. They truly believe that “the future holds something amazing for Umu.”
For Umu, kind gifts from strangers meant the difference between a tragic early death and a vibrant future. Your legacy gift, no matter how big or small, can save the lives of many more children like Umu.
Professor Fanja’s dream of becoming a surgeon started as a little girl, when she watched her mother, a nurse, care for patients: “When my mother treated people after surgery, and the next day they were cured, all this motivated me.”
It took years of hard work and study, but through a long-term professional partnership with Mercy Ships, Professor Fanja is now one of Madagascar’s leading surgeons – and she’s not stopping there. She wants to elevate and train other surgeons across her island nation, so patients can continue receiving healing long into the future.
In 2015, Professor Fanja took a course with Mercy Ships to learn how to be a trainer. She started helping Mercy Ships teach other Malagasy students in 2016, and she hasn’t stopped since.
With Mercy Ships’ return to Madagascar in 2024, our partnership with her was reborn, built on a shared vision of a stronger healthcare system able to serve
its people with excellence: “That is my dream for Madagascar,” she said. “And I think it’s a dream for all of us.”
With a legacy gift, you can be part of transforming the future of African healthcare for good, through sustainable education and training.
A gift in your Will could one day fund surgical courses and equip the next generation of sub-Saharan African surgeons.
Dr Michael McBrien, an anaesthetist from Belfast, had never heard of Mercy Ships back in 2010 when he first spoke to two volunteers at a trade stand. But the opportunity to use his medical skills to serve people from low-income countries and ‘maximise his gifts’ immediately caught his attention.
Within the year, he was on his way to Sierra Leone to volunteer in the Africa Mercy operating theatre.
This was the start of a decade-long journey, as Michael returned 14 more times and counting to serve with Mercy Ships. After his first visit, he told his wife, Irene, “You have to see this!” She’s since joined him on board as a volunteer pharmacist several times.
They say it’s been a beautiful experience of sharing their skills alongside an “amazing, dynamic community of patients and crew.”
Several years ago, while writing his Will, Michael says the decision to include a gift to Mercy Ships was an easy one. He is humble about this pledge, saying, “God doesn’t need me to leave money to make this organisation work.” Instead, the desire to leave a legacy behind is one rooted in gratitude: “It’s more from a place of acknowledging what Mercy Ships has been to me. I’ve gained more than I’ve ever given, every time I’ve come.”
To anyone considering legacy gifting, Michael shares, “Within all of our hearts is a desire placed by God to make a difference for others. We can come to the ship and volunteer, but another way to serve is to support this organisation financially.
“If you think of your money being multiplied in impact, there’s no better way to use it than leaving a legacy gift to Mercy Ships. They’ll handle it carefully and wisely to serve others and enlarge God’s kingdom, wherever they are.”
Ruth Guy has supported Mercy Ships for many years. When it came to writing her Will, she wanted to ensure her family were taken care of, but she also wished to leave a small share to Mercy Ships. She tells us why.
I wanted to leave a Will because it’s the kindest and most thoughtful thing to do for your family.
It’s a heart-warming thing to do for yourself as well, as you don’t need to feel anxious about what’s going to happen when the time comes.
By choosing to leave a legacy gift, our money goes to things that God has led us to support.
So that’s why I wanted to leave a gift in my Will: to make things less complex for family, but also to use our money for things that really count.
For me, leaving a Will means the good that I’ve really enjoyed doing for Mercy Ships will carry on after I’m gone. I know that the money will be used to transform lives. People aren’t just helped temporarily by Mercy Ships. Their whole lives are turned around!
My family are very supportive of my decision to leave money to Mercy Ships. They know how much it means to me.
My gift will be there for someone when all hope seems lost. It is wonderful to know that.
Images: (Top) Dr Keith Thomson with one of the vehicles he donated, enabling our volunteers to reach the most remote communities. (Bottom) Dr Keith with Catherine in the UK in 2023.
Dr Keith Thomson’s life and legacy are both marked by generosity. As a volunteer doctor with Mercy Ships, Dr Keith helped make life-changing surgeries possible for many patients over the course of 20 years on board. But his impact wasn’t limited to the operating theatre. He was a fierce advocate for people facing poverty and a believer in the power of education, leading many anaesthesia training courses for local healthcare professionals across sub-Saharan Africa.
He generously donated several Land Rovers, so Mercy Ships medics could reach remote hospitals. And while visiting a local hospital in Sierra Leone, when he heard that a woman named Catherine was at risk of dying because she couldn’t afford a caesarean surgery, Dr Keith paid for the surgery himself. His response saved not only the woman’s life, but her baby daughter’s as well.
Dr Keith left a life-changing legacy behind him, and his story inspired many more to donate more than £5,800 for Mercy Ships in his memory.
We understand that leaving a gift to a charity in your Will is a personal and sensitive decision, which is why we promise to answer any question honestly, prioritise confidentiality, respect your privacy, and spend every legacy gift wisely to maximise its impact for those we serve.
We’re so grateful that you are considering including a gift to Mercy Ships in your Will. Every gift, no matter the amount, helps bring hope and healing to many more people worldwide who can’t access safe surgical care.
If you’d like to leave a gift for the future, simply follow these steps:
● Speak to your solicitor to discuss the best path forward.
● If you haven’t signed a Will yet, make an official Will for free through our special partnership with The National Free Wills Network. This is an obligation-free option that comes with no pressure to leave a gift to Mercy Ships, although we’d love you to consider it.
● If you wish to update your Will to include a legacy gift to Mercy Ships, your solicitor can help you request and complete a codicil form to keep alongside your original Will.
The residue (or proportion) of an estate after all other gifts, debts and expenses have been paid. As this is based on a share (percentage) of your overall estate, a residuary gift is not affected by inflation. This gift has the highest value over time.
A fixed sum of money. The value of this type of gift will decrease over time due to inflation. If you would like to future-proof your legacy, you can ask your solicitor about index-linking your gift, which will preserve its value.
Leaving a gift to someone for a period of time, which can then be given onto charity after their death.
To explore more about legacy giving, go to mercyships.org.uk/legacy or scan the QR code.
If you have any questions, we are here for you.
Please call 01438 727800 or email us at legacy@mercyships.org.uk
To leave a legacy gift to Mercy Ships, please include our charity details:
Mercy Ships UK
The Lighthouse 12 Meadway Court
Stevenage SG1 2EF
Registered Charity No: 1053055. Registered Charity in Scotland No. SC039743. Company No: 3147724 (England and Wales)
Please complete the form and return it to us.
I would like to bring hope and healing to those who are suffering by including a legacy gift to Mercy Ships in my Will. (Please tick all that apply)
I have already included Mercy Ships in my Will I intend to include a gift to Mercy Ships in my Will
I would like more information about the Free Wills Network scheme
I would like you to pass my details onto the National Free Wills Network
I’m happy to be contacted about leaving a gift to Mercy Ships in my Will. Please get in touch using the phone number and address provided below.
Address details
Please note that this pledge is not legally binding and does not commit you to leaving a legacy to Mercy Ships. It is simply a statement of your intent at this time and any information you provide is confidential. It is certainly not essential that you tell us of your decision to include Mercy Ships in your Will, but if you are happy to let us know, we can let you know how much we truly appreciate your gift.
If you have any questions, please contact our Supporter Care team on 01438 727800 or email info@mercyships.org.uk. For information on your data protection rights please visit: mercyships.org.uk/privacy-policy
