A special service unites the relatives of those who have donated their bodies to medical science and the students who benefit, writes Alan Thomson

This is my body, the shell of my being which is given to you in final offering to the world." As the Rev Nick Goulding speaks those words, many of the vast congregation in London's Southwark Cathedral bow their heads and wipe away tears.

The verse has particular potency here. It is taken from a poem written by an anonymous American who left his body to medical science, and was originally intended for the students who would soon be dissecting his lifeless body. It was read out last month by Goulding, who is professor of pharmacology and medical education at Barts and the London Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry. For the hundreds sitting before him, his words carry a deep resonance. They are the friends and relatives whose loved ones likewise donated their remains for research and education - and the medical students and academics who dissected them, all sitting together in what is surely one of the most remarkable annual religious events in the UK.

The services of thanksgiving for those who have given their bodies for medical education and research, held in Southwark and other regional centres across the country, are testimony to humanity's capacity for selflessness and our species' sober relationship with the certainty of death. The fact that they are about thanksgiving rather than remembrance reflects the debt of gratitude owed by the medical profession to the donors and their families. Dissection is still a vital part of medical training.

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Textbooks and standardised anatomical models are no substitute for the real thing.

The country's proud record in medicine is underpinned by training that relies on the donation of bodies. And every year, hundreds of people sign consent forms to do just that after being fully informed of the clinical treatment their remains will receive after death, from initial embalming and tissue preservation to the arrangements for their ultimate disposal.

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In the face of that in essence dehumanising process, the thanksgiving service serves two complementary purposes. First, it helps students to make the empathic link between the cadavers they use as teaching aids and the people they once were. Jocelin Hall, a medical student at Guy's, King's and St Thomas's School of Medicine in London, recalls that the first time she saw a body she was not shocked, because it looked "plasticised" by the preservation process. But she adds: "At this service they become people with families who love them. I'm glad I came."

The second purpose is providing emotional release and resolution for friends and families who have not held conventional funerals for their loved ones. In some cases, donated bodies can be held by medical schools for up to three years before they are released to be finally laid to rest.

Sisters Karina Bowie and Emma Clarke have flown from Guernsey and Spain to attend the service. It has been a tough couple of years for them. In April 2003, their father, Anthony, died, and last May they attended the thanksgiving service with their mother, Elizabeth. Then, in December, she too died. This year they attend for them both.

"When you read about the process that the bodies go through, it is all quite clinical," Bowie says. "You don't think about it applying to your mum or dad. But you feel that here, at this service, it really is your mum and dad. It is a mark of respect to them and what they did. It is done so beautifully. It makes me feel at ease."

Gertrude Fineing, 73, sits with her son Les, recalling her husband, Charles, who died in April. Les Fineing says: "The service has given me, for want of a better word, what the Americans call closure. Normally you go to a funeral and have an intense period of grief. But in our case we didn't have that, so this was good for us."

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Fineing knows that this is unlikely to be the last such service he will attend, as his mother has decided to follow her husband's lead and leave her body to medical science. Mrs Fineing says: "Many people have not heard of body donation. Others are against it. But I think once you die, your spirit goes and it is nice to be able to carry on helping others." Like many of the friends and relatives at the service, she is pleased to see so many medical students and remains a staunch supporter of their work. There is a bond between them, a feeling that is acknowledged and reciprocated.

Dan Furnedge, who has just completed his first year at Guy's, King's and St Thomas's, says it is important for him to see the relatives "and just say thank you". When Serena Strickland, a student at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, reads the first lesson from Psalm 139, she speaks for all of the medical staff present as homage for godly omnipotence becomes a tribute to the donors who have given her and her fellow students an understanding of the complex beauty of the human body.

"For it was you who formed my inward parts;

You knit me together in my mother's womb.

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I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works; that I know very well."

Pat Honeysett came to the service as she has done for the past three years since the death of her mother, Barbara Benson, at the age of 93. And she intends to return next year. "I find it uplifting. Where else would ordinary people get a service like this? It's like a state occasion with all the clergy and choir. I think mother would have appreciated all that."

A few days before the service, Honeysett had mentioned that the mere recounting of her experiences researching body donation on behalf of her mother had prompted many friends to request donor forms. Now, standing in front of the cathedral, she smiles and says: "Since I first spoke to you about this article, I have thought about it some more and have decided to get a donation form for myself. It's all a bit hidden, isn't it? People don't speak about it. It is good that something is being written about this. I hope it helps."

Those interested in donating their bodies should contact Louise Evans at the London Anatomy Office, 020 8846 1216 or email t.l.evans@imperial.ac.uk

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