Packers continue Kerry's hospital legacy

Kerry Packer's legacy to St Vincent's Hospital will be continued by his family.

The Packer Family Foundation and Crown Resorts Foundation announced the multimillion dollar funding to help the hospital conduct long-distance organ retrievals over the next 10 years.

"This partnership with St Vincent's was initiated over 30 years ago by my late husband Kerry and his close friend the late Dr Victor Chang. Kerry was incredibly private about his generosity to countless charities, organisations and people," Ros Packer said in a statement on Monday.

She said her late husband supported the unit by "ensuring it had the physical and financial resources to transport organs by air around the country."

During his life, Mr Packer, who died in 2005, donated millions of dollars to charitable causes, ranging from the building of new hospital wings to individuals who had fallen on hard times.

Following the heart attack he suffered in 1990, Mr Packer made a $2.5 million donation to the NSW Ambulance Service.

Then after his life-saving kidney transplant in 2000 from his helicopter pilot, Nicholas Ross, Mr Packer launched an organ transplant association, the David Hookes Foundation, in honour of the cricketer.