6 December 2022

My Dead Body broadcast by Channel 4 on 5 December, documents the life of Toni Crews, a young mother with a rare terminal cancer and her decision to donate her body for medical research and public dissection.

Professor Mike Osborn, President, The Royal College of Pathologists said:

`This was a selfless and brave decision by Toni Crews. Deciding to donate her body for medical dissection will advance research into our understanding of cancer, why it starts, how it develops and its progression through the body.

People who donate their bodies for medical research give vital educational opportunities to medical students, doctors and scientists.

Post-mortems are also crucial to understanding why people die and are vitally important in advancing our understanding of disease. Research has shown that a significant number of post-mortems identify disease that wasn’t suspected during life and up to a quarter find disease that would have affected the patient’s treatment if it been identified before death.

The number of consented post-mortems in hospital have drastically fallen over the last 30 years. With the fall in numbers, opportunities to help families understand exactly what happened and to provide valuable information for doctors are also lost.’