Leaving a Gift in Your Will to Camp Quality

A Legacy of Love and Laughter

A legacy isn’t just what you leave behind. It’s what lives on because you were here. It can live in the people you loved, the values you passed on and the things you chose to stand for.

It’s your impact on the world.

Your legacy can be the laughter of a child who gets to feel like a kid again, even when cancer has turned their world upside-down. A family pulling the pieces back together after the darkest chapter of their lives.

Leaving a Gift in Will to Camp Quality – also known as a bequest – is a way to support children facing cancer and their families well into the future. It can help create moments of relief after long hospital stays, make happy family memories, ease fear and isolation, and give kids something cancer so often takes away – the chance to simply enjoy childhood.

And it begins with one decision. Who to remember in your Will.

What is a Gift in Will?

A Gift in Will is a gift you choose to leave to a person or organisation as part of your Will.

For most people, family and loved ones come first – and rightly so. Once you’ve made provision for the people who matter most to you, you may decide to leave part of your estate to a cause that reflects your values.

A Gift in Will to Camp Quality can be large or small. What matters is the decision to make a lasting contribution to children and families facing one of the hardest experiences imaginable.

It’s a gift to people you may never meet, but whose lives can be brighter because of you.

Why leave a gift to Camp Quality?

A childhood cancer diagnosis doesn’t affect one child alone. It affects parents, brothers, and sisters. It rocks the whole family.

Treatment can stretch over months or years. There can be long hospital stays, painful procedures, financial pressure. Children diagnosed with cancer miss out on childhood. They miss developmental milestones. They miss out on their education. They miss out on so many of the things that set them up for a healthy, happy adulthood.

Others deal with the unimaginable stress of a parent or sibling’s diagnosis. Some families experience the devastating loss of a child.

Camp Quality is there through those experiences, helping kids and families find moments that shine through the dark clouds of cancer.

Our programs give families opportunities to reconnect, meet others who understand what they’re going through and make happy memories together. Kids get to play, laugh, socialise and build confidence. Parents get the chance to see their children enjoying life again.

For families living through cancer, those moments can be precious.

Your Gift in Will helps make more of them possible.

What can your Gift in Will provide?

A future gift to Camp Quality supports programs that help children and families at different stages of their cancer experience.

• Kids’ Camps and Family Camps. Children can have fun, try new things and connect with other kids and families who understand what life with cancer can involve.
• Family Retreats give families time away together, including after difficult or lengthy hospital treatment, helping them reconnect somewhere that isn’t a ward or treatment room.
• Family Fun Days and Family Experiences create opportunities for families to spend time together and make memories that aren’t defined by illness.
• Child Life Therapists help children manage the fear, stress and anxiety of medical procedures and the Camp Quality Puppets brighten up wards, teach kids about cancer and support kids returning to school after treatment.

The form your support takes may continue to evolve. However, the purpose will remain the same – helping kids facing cancer just be kids again.

A legacy that spans generations

Camp Quality has supported children and families facing cancer since 1983.

Its beginnings came from a simple observation by founder Vera Entwistle. While it may not always be possible to change the quantity of a child’s life, it is possible to improve its quality.

Vera had heard about a little girl called Teddy, who had incurable brain cancer. During a camping trip with other children from her hospital ward, Teddy’s father heard her laugh for the first time since her diagnosis.

That moment inspired Camp Quality.

More than four decades later, the idea still sits at the heart of what we do – create opportunities for children to laugh, play, connect and experience childhood despite cancer.

What are the different types of Gifts in Will?

There are several ways you can include Camp Quality in your Will. The right option will depend on your circumstances and wishes, so it’s important to discuss your plans with a solicitor.

Three common types are:

• A residuary gift 
  • A residuary gift is a gift from what remains of your estate after your loved ones have been provided for and other expenses and gifts have been taken care of.
    For many people, this is an effective way to leave a charitable gift because its value adjusts with the overall value of the estate rather than being fixed at today’s dollar amount.
  • You can leave the whole residue of your estate or a proportion of it.
• A percentage gift 
  • You can also nominate a percentage of your estate to go to Camp Quality.
  • Like a residuary gift, a percentage gift changes in line with the value of your estate. That means you can decide on the proportion you would like to leave without needing to predict what your estate might be worth many years from now.
• A pecuniary gift 
  • A pecuniary gift is a specific sum of money. We are grateful for whatever you decide, but it’s worth being aware that the relative value of a pecuniary gift diminishes over time.
  • Your solicitor can help you decide which approach best reflects your intentions.

How do you leave Camp Quality a gift in your Will?

Leaving a charitable gift in your Will is usually straightforward.

If you already have a Will, you may be able to update it rather than create a completely new one. If you don’t yet have a Will, preparing one gives you the opportunity to make clear decisions about your family, your estate and the causes you care about.

We recommend three important steps.

• Take care of your loved ones first. Your Will should reflect the people and responsibilities that matter most in your life.
• Talk to a solicitor. Professional legal advice can help ensure your wishes are clearly expressed and your Will is legally valid.
• Talk to your family about your decision. Explaining your wishes now can bring clarity that may be important later.

You can find suggested wording and Camp Quality’s legal details on our Gift in Will page.

Camp Quality also partners with organisations that can make preparing or updating a Will easier, including through Safewill.

Do I need to tell Camp Quality?

You don’t have to tell us if you’ve included Camp Quality in your Will. However, if you feel comfortable doing so, we would love to hear from you.

Knowing about your intentions means we can thank you properly and keep you connected with the work your future gift will support.

It can also give our Gifts in Wills team the opportunity to answer questions about Camp Quality or provide information you may need when speaking with your solicitor.

Your decision remains yours, and you can change your Will in the future if your circumstances change.

What does leaving a legacy really mean?

For Camp Quality supporters Alan and Jill, leaving a Gift in Will was an extension of something they had believed in for years.

After learning more about Camp Quality and meeting volunteers, Alan began supporting the organisation. He and Jill continued giving even after retirement and ultimately chose to include Camp Quality in their Will.

For them, the decision was about continuing something that had already brought meaning to their lives.

A legacy doesn’t have to begin after you’re gone.

It begins with the values you live by now – kindness, generosity, compassion, a belief that childhood should contain laughter even in the hardest times.

A Gift in Will gives those values life.

A legacy of love and laughter

There are many things none of us can know about the future.

But we can decide what we want to carry forward into it.

By leaving a Gift in Will to Camp Quality, you can help future generations of children facing cancer experience camps, getaways, friendship, support, family time and laughter.

You can help give parents a glimpse of their child being a child again.

You can help create memories that families will treasure long after a difficult chapter has passed.

Aside from the Camp Quality programs and services your support provides, knowing you care – that they are not alone – means so much to our families.

To learn more about including Camp Quality in your Will, visit our Gift in Will page or contact our Gifts in Wills team at [email protected].

Thank you for your consideration.