True kindness shines when we hear about a selfless gesture by some friends of one of our ex-vet nurses Hayley, who were married in August of this year and asked that guests donate funds to the bears in lieu of wedding presents. Hayley (also looking gorgeous on the right in the photo) has written a little update about Gail and Tony’s special day – and it only leaves me to send a massive bear-sized thank you and hug from all in the team of Animals Asia to you both for being so incredibly kind to animals suffering so many miles away and to wish you both lifelong happiness and joy.
As most of you know Animals Asia Foundation, which rescues moon bears from a lifetime of misery in cages on bile farms in Asia, is BVNA’s [British Veterinary Nursing Association’s] charity of the year and many of you have been busy fundraising for this very worthy cause. But non-vet nurses have been getting involved too.
In August this year my best friend Gail Harrison, who is head of care at a special-needs residential school, married plumbing and heating engineer Tony Smith and instead of the traditional wedding presents, they asked that people donate to two charities close to their hearts; Cancer Research and Animals Asia Foundation.
I worked out in China with the moon bears for just over 3 years and what made this occasion even more special is that I was one of her bridesmaids. And standing right next to us was our other best friend Annie Cartwright RVN who volunteered at the bear rescue centre last October. There we were, a trio of friends who met at Broomfield College in Derby over 16 years ago whilst studying animal care, celebrating Gail’s special day and united in not forgetting about the bears still suffering.
Animals Asia were touched by Gail and Tony’s generosity and had a special, presonalised frame of a lovely, blind bear called Sophie made for them both which caused a few tears as this is also the name of their little dog who is currently living on borrowed time.
£700 is now winging its way to the bears in China and Vietnam. Thank you so much Gail and Tony.