Your anonymous correspondent whose abusive but repentant father died before signing his changed will is understandably dismayed at the consequence and is deserving of sympathy (Letters, 7 August). However, the charities that benefited from the will, and their trustees, are blameless. The law requires charities to accept all gifts of money unless there is a clear conflict with their own charitable objects. Failure to do so would put the trustees at risk of having to make up the resulting loss to the charity out of their own pockets.
The implication that the charities were grasping and their trustees unfeeling is unfair. Their hands were tied.
John Thompson
Sherborne, Dorset
