Leave a gift in your Will

This Remember A Charity In Your Will Week, leave a lasting legacy with a gift to Guts UK.

Our guts have been misunderstood, undervalued and underfunded for decades. Together, we can change that.

This September, Guts UK is proud to join Remember A Charity In Your Will Week, taking place from 8–14 September. The annual campaign is celebrating 25 years of shining a spotlight on the importance of ensuring you have a Will in place and also encourages people to leave a lasting legacy to the causes they care about.

In 1971, our founders got together and decided they wanted to do something to end the pain and suffering that people living with digestive conditions face.

A lot has changed since then but there is so much still to do. More than 50 years on, we haven’t yet achieved our founder’s goals.

With your support, we can continue to provide expert information and support to those who need us, and fund life-changing research that can lead to earlier diagnosis, kinder treatments and ultimately, a cure.

Find out more about more about leaving a gift to Guts UK below. Together, we can get to grips with guts.

Download our free Legacy Guide for information about writing your Will and leaving a gift to charity. PDF, 13.6MB

Leanne’s story

Remember a Charity In Your Will Week coincides with Achalasia Awareness Month. We caught up with Leanne, a 35 year old mum of three from Barnsley, living with end-stage achalasia. Leanne has previously shared her story with Guts UK and candidly updates us on the deterioration of her condition, in the hope of inspiring others to support our charity by leaving a gift in their Will.

Guts UK supporter, Leanne, smiling at the camera in a selfie. Leanne has lilac coloured hair and a feeding tube inserted in her nose.

Achalasia is a condition that hinders the passage of food and fluid down the oesophagus (gullet) from entering the stomach, which leads to difficulty swallowing. It is uncommon, affecting 1 in 100,000 new patients in the UK each year.

In 2022, Leanne’s health drastically declined, and she was admitted to hospital as an emergency. Talking about the experience, Leanne opens up: “I couldn’t swallow anything, not even water. I went seven days without eating or drinking. In hospital they tried to put in a feeding tube, but my body rejected it. I couldn’t care for my kids. My daughter said: ‘Mummy, I don’t want you to die.’ I thought about giving up. If I died, I died. I didn’t want my kids to see me suffer.”

Today, Leanne is living with end stage achalasia, which means her oesophagus no longer functions properly, and there are very few treatment options left. Talking about her hopes the future, Leanne said:

“There isn’t a cure for achalasia yet and probably won’t be in my lifetime. For me, nothing has fixed it. Every time there’s hope, there’s then disappointment when my symptoms return. It’s exhausting both physically and emotionally.

“I hope that with the support of gifts in Wills pledged to Guts UK, research can be funded into finding kinder treatments to help those with achalasia and other digestive conditions in generations to come.”

Read Leanne's story in full

Make or update your Will for free with our free Will writing services

An illustration of two people standing next to each other with their arms around one another. They are both wearing blue t-shirts with Guts UK's green and white logo on it.

We’ve joined forces with the National Free Wills Network to help you write a Will, free of charge.

You don’t have to include a gift to Guts UK in your Will to use our will writing services, but we hope you will consider a gift once loved ones are provided for.

A gift to Guts UK will help fund groundbreaking research and support the thousands of people affected by digestive conditions.

Visit a local solicitor for free

Meet with a local solicitor to have a simple Will made or updated for free. This service is provided by our partner, the National Free Wills Network, and is a limited offer available across the UK.

Please contact Dani Freedland at dfreedland@gutscharity.org.uk for more information. Following a confidential conversation, the Free Wills Network will provide you with a list of participating solicitors in your area.

Please note, Guts UK has partnered with National Free Wills Network to provide this service but other free wills operators are available.

Your Legacy Pledge

If you are thinking of remembering Guts UK in your Will, or if you have already done so, please let us know by completing the form below. With this information, we will have the opportunity to thank you for your pledge or provide you with further information about leaving a Will, confidentially. To find out what information you need to include Guts UK in your Will, read our free Legacy Guide

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