A WIDOW left a fortune of more than £2 million to charity in her will.
Retired chiropodist Isabella Houston, 90, died in Creggan Bahn nursing home in Ayr earlier this year.
Mrs Houston, whose husband James had also stayed with her in the same home until he died in 2012 aged 94, had built up an estate valued at £2,218,152.21.
She left her friend Eleanor Gibson £25,000 and ordered the rest be split equally between four charities which were close to her heart.
Now they all stand to receive around £550,000 each before tax.
The charities are Cancer Research UK, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), the British Heart Foundation and CLIC Sargent.
The figures have only now been revealed after Mrs Houston's will was made public.
Records show that Mrs Houston left £1,000 in personal effects and jewellery valued at £9,524.
She also had £50,198.89 held in two Royal Bank of Scotland accounts, £20,000 in savings bonds and £45,337.08 in securities.
But the vast majority of her fortune was in a massive portfolio of stocks and shares in 37 companies totalling £2,092,172.24.
Mrs Houston held 1,000 shares in global drinks giant Diageo totalling £19,047.50, as well as 6,900 shares in Royal Dutch Shell worth £172,450.32 and held 18,950 shares in Standard Life Equity with a value of £80,172.71.
Other companies she held shares in included Tesco, Vodafone, Ladbrokes, G4S and British American Tobacco.
Marjory Burns, director of British Heart Foundation (BHF) Scotland, said: "Legacies are vital for funding BHF Scotland's life-saving work in the fight against cardiovascular disease."
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