Family donates £515k to uni in memory of graduate

A university has launched scholarships for illustrators in memory of a graduate who died from cancer, following a £515,000 family donation.

Paula Heister graduated from Anglia Ruskin University's (ARU) Children's Book Illustration in 2023. She died aged 40 last year shortly after being diagnosed with brain cancer.

The funding was donated from Schroeder-Heister-Stiftung, a charity set up by Paula's parents. Part of the funds also came from her late grandfather.

Shelley Jackson, course director for the MA in Children's Book Illustration at ARU, said: "We are extremely grateful to her family for this generous donation, which allows us to honour her memory in such a meaningful way."

ARU said the money would be distributed over 10 years and would support two scholarships each year.

It said funding had also allowed it to establish a number of additional initiatives.

Jackson added: "These initiatives, developed in close partnership with the Heister family, celebrate the many facets of Paula's life and character, not least her empathy, curiosity, academic rigour and commitment to artistic innovation."

Paula was born in Münsterlingen, Switzerland, and later came to the UK where she studied psychology, philosophy and physiology at St Hilda's College, Oxford.

She lived in Cambridge with her husband Chris, combining her work as an illustrator with her academic career in science and medicine.

Chris ran the 2026 London Marathon on the one-year anniversary of Paula's death, raising money for a cancer charity.

Gabriele Heister, her mother, said: "Paula had always praised ARU for its good atmosphere and strong community sense.

"The Paula Heister Student Scholarships honour Paula's own experience on the children's book illustration course, the friendships she made at ARU, and her belief in the transformative potential of the MA programme."

Her father Peter Schroeder-Heister added: "The Paula Heister Student Scholarships express our family's gratitude to the students and teachers of the illustration course, and our family's wish to give gifted young people the opportunity to study at ARU."

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