How gifts in wills made a difference to Fiona and Derek

We joined the Woodland Trust in 1984. Both of us really enjoy walking in the woods and in the countryside. Trees are very important to us.

As a child I often went for walks with my parents and woodlands were very important places for us. We looked at flowers, we looked at the trees, we loved birds, all sorts of nature.

One of the things I've really enjoyed is that despite always living in urban areas it's always been easy to get to places that were green, wooded, outdoors. And although there's some things you can do in your garden - it's nice to have trees, it's lovely to see the birds come, they're fledging at the moment - but actually to get out and away from an urban built up area is a joy. So we've spent over the years lots of time walking in managed woodland, sometimes in very ancient woodland, and I guess for us, the fact that the Woodland Trust is here to both protect the ancient woodland and to plant loads of new trees is a great combination. So that's one of the reasons why we're supporters.

I think it's important for us that we know that we're contributing to something that's going forward into the future. It's going to be very important for generations to have wonderful woodlands and for ancient woodlands to be protected. So that's something we very much support - both the protection and the maintenance of woodland, but also the campaigning side of the Woodland Trust to make sure that woodlands are not destroyed by infrastructure developments. It's very important to us to feel that there's a future for trees that we've seen today - very tiny little ones are going to be massive great ones long after we're gone! Part of our legacy will be that those can be there and other people can enjoy them.

I think the risk these days is big infrastructure projects that can run the risk of destroying without thinking about it.

I suppose it sort of chimes with us because we're celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary this year and I think probably for most of our married life we've enjoyed woodlands and walking and the kinds of areas the Woodland Trust supports. So that I think we can celebrate massively. And I think it's also producing the legacy for another 50, 100, whatever years to come.

You can plant gardens for today and next year and next week but you plant trees not for now but for children and grandchildren. That's really important to us, that legacy, and making a commitment to the Woodland Trust is an opportunity really to think about the future and not just now.