David McConnell's mother, Doreen McConnell, from Raheny in Dublin, died last year and, in accordance with her long-standing wishes, her body was passed to the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI).
"My mother decided many years ago to leave her body to the RCSI and, naturally, we followed her wishes," he says. "She died in July last year at the age of 94 and she was pretty active up to the end." His mother, thankfully, did not suffer serious illness in the later stages of her life, he says.
"Shortly after mammy died, my wife Frances and myself sat down and talked about it and we thought maybe it was a good idea for us. We have also signed up with the college.
"I suppose our thinking was that, whether any of us likes it or not, some of us will go under surgery. We need good, well-trained doctors and surgeons. And we have always felt as much as possible that you should give something back."
Asked whether the family's decision to comply with his mother's wishes that her body be left for medical research was hard, David says: "It was not difficult at all, because mammy had let us know many years before and it was not coming out of the blue."
He has high praise for how the matter was handled.
"The undertakers were great and they explained everything very well and even talked me through what would happen when mammy's body will be returned to the family and whether we have a burial. They could not have been more helpful."
The RCSI organised an ecumenical memorial service earlier this year for the families of those who have donated their bodies to the college.
David and his family attended the service and were moved by the experience.
He says he is happy to outline his own family's experience if it will in any way contribute to getting other people to think about this final, altruistic gift to the doctors and surgeons of the future.