A retired head teacher has left a £1 million legacy to the hospice which cared for her husband.

The donation by Anne Heath, who lost her battle with cancer last year at the age of 77, is set to transform St Wilfrid's Hospice, in Eastbourne, and help cancer sufferers in the area.

Mrs Heath, a former deputy headteacher at Hampden Park Secondary School, died at her home in Saffrons Road, Eastbourne last November, after fighting lung cancer for years.

During the last year of her life, she vowed to remain at home in her three-bedroom maisonette with support from Macmillan nurses. She always remembered the loving care and support staff at St Wilfrid's gave to her husband, Graham, who lost his fight against cancer during the 1980s.

Now, as a tribute to the hospice, details of her will have revealed it is to receive the bulk of her estate, valued at £1,274, 300.

Stephen Gilbert, hospice manager said: "The whole community has supported us over the years and we are thought of with a lot of affection. We rely on very generous donations from people, but this is the most we have ever received in one go.

"To put it into perspective a very good year for us was in 1994 when we received a total of £900,000 in donations of this kind. But this tops that in one single legacy."

The windfall is enough money to pay for the total yearly running costs of the hospice, which caters for 250 inpatients a year and dozens more, through its day hospice service.

The hospice is not the only organisation to benefit from her fortune, gained through her husband's work as a property surveyor.

She was a regular parishioner at her local church, St Saviours and St Peter's, which has now learned it is to receive £1,000 from Mrs Heath's estate.

Father Derek Mottershead, vicar at the church, said: "I knew her for at least eight years. She was a regular face at services. She was a good, faithful woman and this donation is typical of her.

"We haven't decided what it will go towards but it is likely to help with our running costs. We have recently put in flood lighting which has cost a bit of money but this donation could go towards any number of things."

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