{"id":7039,"date":"2025-04-28T15:29:47","date_gmt":"2025-04-28T14:29:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/?p=7039"},"modified":"2025-04-28T16:30:04","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T15:30:04","slug":"7039-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/7039-2\/","title":{"rendered":"School holds annual Service of Commemoration and Thanksgiving"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_7040\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7040\" style=\"width: 525px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-7040 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/2025\/04\/Chapel-Ceiling-1024x684.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"525\" height=\"351\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7040\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">St Savator&#8217;s Chapel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>On 23 April, the School of Medicine hosted its annual\u00a0Service of Thanksgiving and Commemoration\u00a0at St Salvator\u2019s Chapel. This event acknowledges the invaluable contributions of individuals who have donated their bodies to the School for medical teaching and research. The ceremony was attended by relatives and friends of donors, as well as University staff and students.<\/p>\n<p>Opening the service, University Chaplain Revd Dr Donald MacEwan gave thanks for the donors, noting that learning from their bodies is a great privilege made possible by the altruism of these \u201csilent teachers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Three BSc (Hons) Medicine students then shared their personal reflections on the profound impact of this gift on their education. Third-year student Fergus Jajdelski described donors\u2019 selflessness as \u201chumbling\u201d and their role in medical education as \u201cinvaluable.\u201d In particular, he explained, learning from donated bodies enables pupils to develop a holistic understanding of the human body rather than relying on rote memorisation. He described donors as students\u2019 \u201cfirst patients,\u201d emphasising their importance in teaching students to approach all patient interactions with empathy and respect.<\/p>\n<p>Jimin Lim, third-year student and School of Medicine President, expressed her immeasurable gratitude to the donors. Their positive influence, she explained, will extend beyond herself and her peers to their future patients. First-year student Daniel Hogg echoed these sentiments, expressing deep respect for donors\u2019 generosity.<\/p>\n<p>These reflections were followed by Revd. MacEwan\u2019s sermon, \u2018Blessed are the merciful.\u2019 Revd. MacEwan underscored the importance of kindness and compassion in medical practice and the role donors play in cultivating these characteristics in students.<\/p>\n<p><span>The event concluded with a reception in Lower College Hall, where attendees had the opportunity to meet and share stories, further honoring the legacy of the donors.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>If you would like to learn more about the School of Medicine\u2019s Body Donation programme, please email\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:bodydonation@st-andrews.ac.uk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">bodydonation@st-andrews.ac.uk<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On 23 April, the School of Medicine hosted its annual\u00a0Service of Thanksgiving and Commemoration\u00a0at St Salvator\u2019s Chapel. This event acknowledges the invaluable contributions of individuals who have donated their bodies to the School for medical teaching and research. The ceremony was attended by relatives and friends of donors, as well as University staff and students.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5585,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[79,1402],"class_list":["post-7039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-anatomy","tag-body-donation"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-21 11:41:56","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5585"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7039\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}