A partnership between an Edinburgh charity and a UK legal firm is offering Edinburgh residents the opportunity to make a Will for free in return for a charitable donation.

Care and Repair Edinburgh offers a range of practical services and advice to assist older and disabled people in Edinburgh. Now celebrating its 30th year, the charity has teamed up with McClure Solicitors to enable it to grow and expand its services.

Wills, Trusts and Estate Planning specialists McClure are providing the service under its Free Wills for Charity Scheme where the company prepares a Will free of charge and suggests to the client that they may wish to make a donation to the charity.

In June alone the scheme has raised around £15,000 in donations, around £30,000 in Gift Aid and £1.2 million for various charities including MacMillan Cancer Support.

Care and Repair is looking to expand the services it provides to help enable older and disabled people to remain safely and independently in their own homes. These include a trusted volunteer handyperson service, a home-from-hospital adaption service, small repairs and home improvements, as well as safe referrals to vetted professional tradespeople.

Graham Harper, CEO, Care and Repair Edinburgh, said: “The partnership with McClure Solicitors is an ideal opportunity to provide people with an essential service free of charge while helping to provide us with donor funds to assist us to help more people.

“Care and Repair helped more than 1,160 local residents stay safely in their own homes in 2014 We take pride in providing a trusted service which older and disabled people can use secure in the knowledge that the tradesperson or volunteer has been vetted and any charges incurred will be strictly monitored and reasonable”

Andrew John Robertson, managing director of McClure Solicitors, said: “A will is such an important document. If a client does not have a Will then they cannot be sure where their estate will go. Even if it goes where they would wish, there is more procedure and therefore more cost and therefore more delay involved in the process. Having a Will (even a simple Will) avoids that.

“Under the Free Wills for Charity Scheme everyone benefits. Clients get the Will which they need, Care and Repair Edinburgh will get much needed funds and over 50 per cent of clients who use our Free Will Service go on to use us for other services. So we also benefit in the long run.”

@carerepairedin

@McClureLegal