Retired English teacher Name: Joyce FaulknerCategory: Supporter or partnerRole: Retired English teacherTime active with Edinburgh Medical School: 2019 - present My husband and I were both English teachers. After he died, I was given a tour of the Anatomy Department, and was delighted to discover that they call the body donations ‘silent teachers’. He would have loved that – the idea of continuing to teach, to help students, even after your life has ended. Joyce Faulkner is an advocate for Edinburgh Medical School’s body donation programme. People who donate their body after death are crucial to our students’ learning. Joyce’s husband, Jim McIntosh, died in 2019 and, as was his wish, became one of our silent teachers. Joyce shared her experience of Jim’s donation in the National Museum of Scotland’s A Matter of Death and Life exhibition in 2022, to encourage other people to consider doing the same. She now spends her time between Scotland and Italy where she works as ‘granny au pair’ to an Italian family, helping the children to improve their English. Her enduring approach to life is to keep learning, grasp opportunities and try to stay positive, no matter what life throws at you. In Italy, she has sparked interest in body donation where the practice is less wellknown. This article was published on 2026-03-11
