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TV favourites recruited to make it a Wombling Remember A Charity Week
[WIMBLEDON’S FAMOUS burrow dwellers, The Wombles, are to be brought back to the nation’s screens for this year’s Remember A Charity Week, running from 7-13 September.
They will feature in a new short animated film that will shine a light on legacy giving. Every charity participating in this year’s campaign will also receive their own branded Wombles film to help communicate the importance of legacies for their cause.
The film and campaign imagery will tackle the most prevalent legacy-giving myth and barrier: the belief that people can’t leave a gift to charity in their will if they wish to support their family and friends. In reality, the UK’s will-writing environment gives the public the flexibility to donate any sum – large or small – to a range of causes, while ensuring their loved ones are taken care of.
The campaign will help charities and legal professionals to celebrate and inspire legacy giving, using online and social media
Re-homing is their mission
[THE MISSION of Three Counties Dog Rescue is to accept, care for and find homes for unwanted, lost and stray dogs and cats and to ensure their wellbeing afterwards. The charity was founded in 1972 and since then they have improved the lives of over 7,000 dogs and cats.
Before rehoming, all animals are vet checked, neutered, vaccinated, microchipped and kept in suitable conditions. Rehabilitation costs are a major part of the charity’s annual expenditure of over £200,000.
Healthy animals are never put down. As part of that non-destruction policy, several elderly dogs are kept in long term foster care. However, this means that the charity can incur large veterinary costs to maintain a dog’s health while they await a new permanent home.
Every penny raised goes to improving the lives of dogs and cats. Three Counties Dog Rescue is run entirely by voluntary and unpaid helpers, who also meet their own expenses. q
channels, legacy-focused national newspaper supplements and printed materials. Rob Cope, director of Remember A Charity, said: “While the nation battles COVID-19, charities have understandably held off from a great deal of legacy promotion activity. And yet legacy giving is likely to be one of the most critical channels for the sector’s recovery, with gifts in wills needed more than ever. That’s why we’re making sure this year’s Remember A Charity Week campaign not only reaches and engages more of the giving public, but that we create resources to help charities deliver their own unique legacy message, too. “The Wombles are warmly remembered for the way they supported each other and the wider community, and for their unfailing commitment to look after the world we live in. In such challenging times, who better to encourage the public to consider leaving a gift in their will?” The Wombles’ Great Uncle Bulgaria added: “The Wombles are delighted to be supporting Remember a Charity Week. Now, more than ever, we need to help each other and the hundreds of charities that do such wonderful work in our communities and burrows. If you can ‘remember you’re a Womble’, we hope you can remember a charity in 2020.” Charities across the UK are being invited to join the consortium and take part in this year’s Remember A Charity Week. Campaign materials will be available for use during the week and
beyond. q
The Knowledge that touches the lives of thousands of animals
[THE SPECIAL BOND between a pet and its owner is the source of love, companionship and memories to last a lifetime. So when pets fall sick, owners put their trust in vets and vet nurses to give their loved ones the best possible care. Thousands of those vets and vet nurses put their trust in RCVS Knowledge to help them save the lives of countless dogs, cats and other beloved family friends, and nurse them back to health.
At RCVS Knowledge, they provide veterinary professionals with support and skills that help them give the highest quality of care possible to a wide range of animals, from pet newborn rabbits to the youngest lambs on the farm.
RCVS Knowledge find the answers to urgent clinical questions from veterinary surgeons, and share these for free with veterinary professionals in 150 countries, to help improve the lives of animals around the world.
They provide vets and vet nurses with free checklists, guidelines, articles, podcasts and many more resources that can make the difference between losing and saving a pet. Their team of experts provide veterinary professionals with friendly support every step of the way in finding and using techniques that are proven to give the animals in their care the best chance of a full and lasting recovery.
RCVS Knowledge deliver a wide variety of free training and resources online and around the country, so that busy veterinary professionals can gain the knowledge and confidence they need at a place and time that suits them, whether they are working alone in a rural location or providing out-of-hours emergency treatment.
“We are committed to ensuring as many vets and vet nurses as possible have the best available information to hand when they are making critical decisions about the treatment animals receive,” said Chris Gush, executive director of RCVS Knowledge.
“To do this, we offer a set of services for free, services that are highly regarded and heavily used,” he continued. “Vets and vet nurses tell us time and again how valuable and impressive they find our range of support, which is always delivered in a timely and approachable manner. Many veterinary professionals who draw on our support spread the word to their colleagues and contacts, helping us help even more pets. Our services can help vets to save time, resources and, ultimately, the lives of thousands of animals.
“As a small charity with a big responsibility, we rely on donations to help us carry out our mission to improve the quality of care animals receive,” said Chris. “We need the support of others who share this passion to expand the tools and training we provide, and make sure that as many pets as possible can benefit from our work, which can truly be life-saving.”
If you are an animal owner or veterinary professional, the work RCVS Knowledge does matters to you. They would be grateful if you would consider supporting them, and help them make an impact on millions of animals’ lives long into the future. q • To find out more and how to support RCVS Knowledge visit rcvsknowledge.org/support-us/
Making surgery their legacy
[CHOOSING TO leave the Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCS) a legacy in your will can have a direct impact on the future of surgery and on the patients it saves. Past legacies have enabled the charity to purchase essential equipment and support a range of projects in surgical education and research.
One of those legacies has allowed the funding of multiple one-year research fellowships, all costing in the region of £65,000. The most recent fellowship awarded with this generous bequest was to a urology surgeon whose project is looking at determining the genetic drivers of bladder cancer. ladder cancer affects approximately 10,000 people each year in the UK. It is more common in older adults and men with one of the most common symptoms being blood in the urine. This research aims to help sufferers of bladder cancer by looking into the genes, which play an important role in driving the cancers and their responses to treatments.
In the short term, the project hopes to discover new ways to diagnose bladder cancer and predict patients’ responses to treatments and in the longer term, will aim to identify treatments that are more effective.
The number of excellent fellowship applications received has doubled since the scheme was introduced in 1993 and the RCS are unable to support 80% of applicants. They are always in need of more funding to enable projects that address the health challenges of modern society, supporting the development of pioneering ideas across the NHS. With each small success the RCS takes another step towards the next big breakthrough. q
Kidney Kids Scotland turns 20 in 2020 Legacies mean so much to our Kidney Kids
[KIDNEY KIDS SCOTLAND, a very small charity with a huge heart, has for the last 20 years supported Scottish children with renal and urology conditions. The main aim of the charity has always been to enable these children to receive treatment as close to home as possible and minimise disruption to the family unit.
In addition the charity helps hospitals all over Scotland, supplying them with much needed equipment and funding posts recognised as being essential. Chronic Kidney disease is a condition that has no cure and that children and their families must learn to live with.
IMAGINE your child only being able to drink 400mls in one day. That’s less than two cartons of juice – a can of juice is 500mls.
IMAGINE being a parent where you must be home before 8pm every single night to ensure your child gets their daily home dialysis.
IMAGINE not being able to take your family abroad or too far away from the hospital because your child cannot go without their dialysis. This HAS to happen in hospital 3 or 4 times EVERY week.
IMAGINE your child missing out on school education, social activities, family members’ birthday celebrations, a sibling’s sports day or a family wedding because you need to make sure they receive their life saving dialysis treatment.
IMAGINE your child spending their birthday and/or Christmas Day in hospital and not being able to see their friends from week to week. q
