Cancer treatment in the Canterbury district is set to be revolutionised thanks to the legacy of a remarkable pensioner whose generosity will benefit thousands of patients.
It follows the gifting of £500,000 to the Friends of Kent and Canterbury Hospital, which has just revealed it will use most of the money to kickstart an East Kent Cancer Radiotherapy Treatment Appeal.
The legacy will boost the funding for a new “surface guided” radiotherapy technology – an advanced technique which streamlines radiotherapy treatment, making it faster, safer and more accurate.
The huge sum of money came “out of the blue” to the charity following the death of Hilda Levi, who the trustees had previously never heard of.
She was a child refugee of Nazi Germany whose entire family was murdered in the Holocaust after she had escaped to Kent in 1939.
She was taken in by a couple in Sutton Valence who became her adoptive parents and later trained as a secretary and business administrator.
She is believed to have inherited her fortune from a wealthy uncle in America.
Miss Levi had a modest home in Whitstable and died unmarried and childless, aged 98, in a care home in 2022, leaving her estate worth £1.4 million to be divided between four charities.
As well as the League of Friends at Kent and Canterbury Hospital, the Friends of Whitstable Healthcare was gifted £200,000 and Herne Bay and Whitstable and Age UK benefited from a generous but undisclosed donation from the £500,000 given to Age UK national.
Miss Levi left a further £200,000 to Moorfields Eye Hospital in London.
None of the charities previously knew of Miss Levi and were hugely surprised but grateful for her generosity.
The League of Friends at Kent and Canterbury Hospital will launch its appeal to raise £800,000 at the charity’s summer fair on July 18 but will use £400,000 of its legacy to get it off to a flying start.
The revolutionary technology will be introduced on all radiotherapy machines at Kent and Canterbury Hospital, increasing the number of patients who can be treated locally without the need for transfer to London or Maidstone.
“We are very excited to be able to do ‘something big’ which will be long-lasting and have tangible benefits for patient care,” said League of Friends chairman Kate Neales.
“The technology also means that more complex radiotherapy treatments for a wider range of cancers may be available in the future at Kent and Canterbury Hospital.
“We hope to start introducing the new treatments this summer, but the fact is that we could not have done it without Hilda’s legacy and we plan to have a plaque in the department in her memory.”
Miss Levi’s gift was the charity’s biggest ever legacy in its 70-year history.
Already, it has spent £100,000 of the donation on an ophthalmology laser system and a urodynamics machine.
Miss Levi also gifted £500,000 to the national charity Age UK, with the expressed wish that at least some of it should benefit the Whitstable area.
Now Herne Bay and Whitstable Age UK has revealed that it has received a generous, but undisclosed, sum from head office, which it will use to increase support for older people in the area.
Branch chief officer Linda Cowdry said: “The funds will go towards helping older people in the Herne Bay and Whitstable area by supporting services run by us, including drop-in dementia clinics, befriending and information and advice services and the Men’s Shed group.”
The Friends of Whistable Healthcare is looking to make good use of the £200,000 it has been gifted by Miss Levi.
Its chairman Georgina Baker says the charity is still deliberating on how to best spend the money on improving local healthcare.
