Roy’s legacy lives on with gift of £147,000 for The Fairways

Residents at a Chippenham care home are to benefit from a £147,000 legacy left to The Fairways by a former resident.

After wartime service with RAF Bomber Command, a career in the pharmaceutical industry and a long and very active retirement, Roy Collins moved to the home, which is run by national older persons’ charity MHA, in 2013. He was the very first resident to move to the purpose-built centre, which is home to 60 residents in the care home and a further 75 retirement living with care apartments.

Before moving to The Fairways, Roy and his late wife Joyce had set up a fund that would support some of their favourite charities, MHA being one of them.

The legacy will be used for enhancements to the facilities at The Fairways, including changing one of the communal lounges at the home into a reminiscence room with memory provoking items, music and pictures, plus two iPads for residents to use for various activities and other materials to help keep minds active as well as lots of other things

In his honour, one of the communal areas at The Fairways will be re-named The Collins Lounge.

Home manager Carol Britton said: “Roy was one of the loveliest gentlemen you could ever wish to meet. He and I became great friends but in residents’ meetings I occasionally held my breath when he decided to raise a point as I never knew what he would say – he could be a proper cheeky chap at times.

“We are delighted and honoured that Roy chose to leave a legacy to us at MHA and his memory will live on for future residents and staff through what he has enabled us to do.”

Roy’s son Frank Collins said: “The family are delighted that my father’s memory will live on at The Fairways. My parents were proud supporters of the work of MHA for over 40 years.

“It was always their wish to continue to help MHA in some form after they had gone – little did my mother know when she died in 2010 that Roy would be able to spend his final years being looked after so well in an MHA home just a few miles from where they had lived for nearly 30 years. It is therefore very fitting that future residents at The Fairways will benefit from this legacy.”