Leave behind an enduring legacy of love in your will

This is branded content for Australian Red Cross.

After 30-years of voluntary service, Bruce Smith will be leaving a gift in his will to the Australian Red Cross just as his late wife Mavis did, and he hopes to inspire others to do the same.

Bruce's involvement and volunteering for Australian Red Cross was sparked by his love for his wife Mavis when she began as a volunteer in the 1960's.

The couple moved to Papua New Guinea in 1968 and Mavis began work as a school teacher in a local primary school where she continued the work her predecessor had begun, running a junior Red Cross group with the students.

"That was where she really became involved with Red Cross at that point of time.

"And me, in supporting her with the work she was doing with the children, doing hospital visits and so on. I used to drive them around," Bruce said.

"I sort of got quite interested in what they were doing and that's really where my first involvement with Red Cross began, and understanding of the size of the organisation and where it was in various parts of the world."

After they left Papua New Guinea and returned to Australia, Mavis continued in her service to Red Cross.

Over the decades and since his retirement, Bruce too has supported Red Cross in a range of areas, from picking up refugees from the airport and helping them settle into their new homes to providing psychosocial support to survivors of the Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria in 2009.

While Mavis has since passed on, Bruce wants others to think about their contribution to helping others beyond this life.

"If you've been supporting a cause throughout your lifetime, then please don't stop when you're thinking about what's going to happen after you leave."

Bruce hopes that his and Mavis' impact will be felt by people well into the future.

This is the message that Bruce wants to pass on as his legacy:

"It would certainly be a wish of mine that people would consider helping others in such a way that they continue to support the causes they care about after they've gone".

"I always think about 'people helping people' as being a motto or a thought that l keep in mind, that you get more out of helping people than you can fully understand," he said.

If you would like a free wills guide, or more information, a member of the Red Cross Gifts in Wills team would love to help. You can Get in touch here, call 1800 733 276 or scan the QR code in the first image.

This is branded content for Australian Red Cross.