In 2007, local artist and Queen’s graduate Carol Crozier was the main beneficiary of her brother’s estate. Given the family’s strong links with Queen’s, Carol decided to vary the terms of her brother’s will, through a deed of variation, to include a legacy gift to the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences for the benefit of cardiovascular research. The gift was made in memory of their late father, Dr Thomas Howard Crozier, also a Queen's graduate and an eminent physician at both the Royal Victoria and the City hospitals in Belfast. Carol and her father are pictured below outside their house on University Square.

In 2016, Carol passed away and left her estate as a gift in her will, to support the fund she had secured during her lifetime. The impact of this gift to cardiovascular research has been considerable. The work being carried out in this field by staff in the Wellcome-Wolfson Institute for Experimental Medicine has brought international renown and has attracted research students, post-doctoral scientists and academic leaders from all over the world.

This year the Crozier legacy fund will further enable 12 students to travel to another major cardiovascular centre in the UK to enrich their experience of cardiac diseases.

It is hugely reassuring to see how Carol's legacy gift is continuing to help tackle one of the biggest causes of heart attacks and strokes worldwide.