Reclusive Scots widow leaves more than £5m in will to charities

Dorothy Pustula died last year at the age of 82, having lived alone in Edinburgh since the death of her husband in the late 1980s.

After gifting about 500,000 to friends and family, she left instructions for the rest of the money to be divided equally between four charities: the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI); the United Nation's children's fund Unicef; the National Trust for Scotland, and the Children's Hospice Association Scotland.

They will each benefit to the tune of about 1.3m.

A keen art lover, Mrs Pustula was also regular church-goer and left 20,000 to the church where she was married.

Surviving relatives have told how she spent much of her life caring for others.

She abandoned plans to train as a dentist to care for her parents when she was just 21. After the death of her mother, who suffered from Parkinson's disease, she continued to care for her father, Archibald Young, until his death in 1976.

In April 1977, she married her widower neighbour Mieczyslaw Pustula – 17 years her senior – at St Giles Parish Church in Marchmont, Edinburgh. The couple then divided their time between the city and a home in Kent until Mr Pustula died in 1988 after contracting pneumonia.

Last night, Patricia Wilkie, 71, a second cousin to Mrs Pustula, told how marriage had sparked new life in her.

Mrs Wilkie, from Woking, Surrey, said: "After Dorothy got married, she began to laugh – she lightened up.

"They went travelling. He had a house in Kent, so they spent the summer in Kent and the winters in Edinburgh."

Mrs Pustula's fortune was made up of cash and stocks and shares, including 180,000 of shares in British American Tobacco.

She was a keen embroiderer and a member of the Edinburgh Embroider's Guild, and had been a keen bridge player until she stopped because of her father's disapproval.

Mrs Wilkie said Dorothy had suffered from ill health in her later years.

She added: "When she met her husband, he changed her life. He opened her eyes to so many things, but when he died, things started to get on top of her. She became so lonely.

"She was much too formal to just pop into someone's house, but I used to pop into visit her. I miss her terribly."

Linda Aitken, legacy manager for the RNLI in Scotland, said: "We are extremely grateful to Dorothy Pustula for her generosity. As a charity, we rely on donations and legacies to train and equip our volunteer lifeboat crew so they continue to save lives at sea."

A Unicef spokesman added: "Unicef UK is incredibly grateful for the generosity and support of Mrs Pustula.

"Mrs Pustula was a supporter of Unicef for many years and has left a substantial amount of her legacy to be equally divided between Unicef and three other charities.

"The money we receive from legacy donations, like that of Mrs Pustula's, is invaluable in helping us to continue this work and we cannot say thank you enough."