CHARITIES have hit the jackpot in the £5.6 million will of a woman from Lindfield.

Noreen Akester inherited most of her fortune from her late husband Joe, who started the Vent-Axia fan company about 60 years ago.

There was a personal reason for two of her choices, the RAF Benevolent Fund and the British Red Cross Society.

Mr Akester, who died in the mid-Eighties, was captured when he was shot down over France during World War I and Red Cross parcels kept him alive.

Mrs Akester, of Malling Priory, High Street, Lindfield, died in August last year at the age of 95. She left:

l £105,000 to St Catherine's Hospice, Crawley.

l £100,000 to St Peter's and St James' Hospice, Wivelsfield Green.

l £100,000 to the Leonard Cheshire Foundation.

l £100,000 to the Sue Ryder Foundation.

l £100,000 to the special trustees of Great Ormond Street Hospital, London.

Others to benefit from the will include St Paul's Church in Haywards Heath (£5,000), All Saints' Church in Lindfield (£1,000) and Battersea Dogs Home (£1,000).

Mrs Akester left shares in the sale of her house, land and property to the RAF Benevolent Fund, the British Red Cross Society, Salvation Army, RNLI and the Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind, among others.

Carol Anne Slater, of St Peter's and St James' Hospice, said: "This lady lived a stone's throw from the hospice and has endorsed the services we provide."

Susan Town, of St Catherine's Hospice, said the bequest was "totally out of the blue."

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