News

27th June 2011

Margaret Lyon – Tophill Joe Owner Leaves Heart Legacy

The late Margaret Lyon of Turriff, Aberdeenshire, who once owned a share of Britain’s most expensive sheep, has bequeathed more than £2 million to a heart disease charity in gratitude for the successful surgery which extended her life.

Margaret was part of the syndicate which bought the Texel ram, Tophill Joe, for £128,000 in 2003. The widow, who died in December 2010, has now left a total of £2,245,435 to the British Heart Foundation.

Fellow Turriff farmer and consortium member, Bruce Mair, said Mrs Lyon who had survived heart surgery, wished to benefit others through her will. At the time of the sale Tophill Joe was Britain’s most expensive sheep.

The ram, which died in 2009, is still the second most expensive sheep ever sold in Britain and fathered lambs worth more than a million pounds.

The record was broken in 2009 when another Texel, Deveronvale Perfection, who was bred in Banffshire, was sold to a breeder in Lanark for £231,000. Mr Mair said friends of Mrs Lyon knew she intended to make a generous donation to the charity. The most valuable part of the legacy is farm land worth £1.4m. Before her death at the age of 77, Mrs Lyon sold her sheep flocks.

A British Heart Foundation spokeswoman said the donation would help fund years of new research which could help save many lives in the future.