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By Animals - For Animals
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Pet Blood Bank UK - 2021-2022 Award Winners

The Heart of Pet Blood Bank Awards celebrate those who hold Pet Blood Bank UK close to their hearts and have made a difference in helping us collect and supply lifesaving blood. We are only where we are today because of the help of our kind supporters, and the Heart Awards allow us to show our gratitude for those who go above and beyond to support the charity.
Here are the fantastic stories of our 2021-22 winners and runners up.

The Bramble Craddock Award:
The Bramble Craddock Award launched in honour of our highest donating dog who sadly passed away. Bramble Craddock was a very special dog, who, like many of our donors, will be forever at the heart of Pet Blood Bank.
We are so pleased to announce that the winner of our Heart of Pet Blood Bank Award in the Bramble Craddock category for 2021-22 is Wyn.

A Saluki x Lurcher, he arrived in his owner Chris’ care after being found as a stray and handed into his vet. He had no collar, tag, or microchip and so was put under Chris’ supervision for a week, in which time his wonderful personality endeared Chris to adopt him and he joined his big family of rescue dogs, which Chris has fondly named ‘The Beastly Beasts’. He had no idea what his name was so after asking him ‘what's your name’ and receiving a flurry of tail wags, Chris decided to call him Wyn.

Wyn has been a Pets as Therapy dog for many years. He has visited hospitals, hospices, and schools where he has provided everyone with lots of attention - invariably greeted with big grins and open arms.

On visits and at events, Wyn always wears his red bandana, as he did while on stand duty with us at Crufts in 2019 and 2020.
A fantastic blood donor in his own right, he recently retired having helped save the lives of up to 100 other dogs.

We’d like to say a huge thank you to Wyn and Chris for all their hard work, passion, and commitment to Pet Blood Bank. Congratulations and well done!

We would also like to congratulate the runner up of our Bramble Craddock Award this year, which goes to Stella with owners Nicola and Lee.
Stella has donated a fantastic 9 times and is still regularly attending sessions in Worsley.

Stella was intended to become a guide dog when Nicola and Lee originally fostered her, but the continuous disruption brought on by the pandemic meant guide dog schools were closed.

Eventually, Stella was withdrawn as she was unable to be placed . She was then adopted and became a lifesaving blood donor instead.
Stella and her story have been featured in the media several times, promoting Pet Blood Bank to a large audience of readers.

A big well done and thank you!

Ambassador Award:
The wonderful winners of our Heart of Pet Blood Bank Ambassador Award this year are Jenny and Stuart Stott.

Jenny and Stuart have been big supporters of Pet Blood Bank for a long time. They first joined forces with us in 2017 when they started to support our mission, alongside running their own charity, Retired Greyhounds South Lakes.

They helped us establish our presence in Cumbria so that they could bring their greyhounds to donate. They have also rehomed over 300 greyhounds across the country, many of which have become blood donors with us. Jenny and Stuart alone have owned 10 greyhounds that have been blood donors and Thor, one of their present greyhounds, has saved up to 80 dogs’ lives all on his own. A huge thank you and well done, Jenny and Stuart.

A big well done also to our Ambassador runner up, Laura Baillie Law. Laura is an amazing advocate of her favourite breed, Golden Retrievers, and loves to spread the word about how they make such brilliant lifesavers. Her dog Missy has been filmed, photographed, and featured in national media for being a blood donor and Laura has been there alongside her telling people how other Golden Retrievers can be lifesavers too.

Laura and Missy are both wonderful ambassadors and this award is for the human half of the duo – thank you Laura!

Fundraising Award:
The winner of our Heart of Pet Blood Bank Award in the Fundraising category is Becky Arthur.
Becky has a small business making beautiful dog tags and keyrings. For Valentine’s Day last year, she made some lovely heart shaped ones and donated half of the money to Pet Blood Bank.

On top of raising over £350, Becky promoted our charity to her thousands of social media followers, introducing an entirely new audience to dog blood donation. This in turn raised a lot of money for us through the sale of tags but also increased awareness.

Becky has three beautiful Golden Retrievers herself, and Bailey, who is five years old, has already donated over 20 times.

As well as all of this, Becky volunteers at our Dunfermline sessions, helping us to run our donation sessions smoothly.
We are so grateful - thank you and well done!

The Fundraising Award runner up is Pam Tait.
Pam took part in our first Around the Coast in 30 Days challenge and was the top performer, completing a huge 452 miles within the month and raising £300. Her dedication to the challenge was incredible and her commitment to doing as many miles as possible was inspiring and encouraged other people to up their game and complete more. Her slogan was ‘do it for the dogs’ and we think she really did just that!

A huge thank you, Pam. Your support means so much.

Host Venue Award:
The winner of the Host Venue Award is Vets4Pets East Kilbride.

Vets4Pets East Kilbride has been a host venue for us since March 2020 and has already hosted 17 successful sessions for us.
Lorna and her team at the practice are very much involved in donor recruitment and are always spreading the word to their clients, as well as getting all the eligible staff dogs to sign up. They have also encouraged a lot of the students they have on placement at the practice to sign up to volunteer at their sessions, and we thank them for being so proactive.
A big thank you to Lorna and the whole team!

We would also like to congratulate our Host Venue runner up, Animal Trust.

We first started visiting their Ellesmere Port branch in December 2020 and they have since hosted 13 wonderful sessions there. They even got their Blackburn branch on board to run sessions and provide an additional venue for donors in the area. Lydia and her team at Ellesmere Port are extremely accommodating and look after the team wonderfully on session days.
Thank you and well done to everyone at Animal Trust.

Volunteer Award:
The winner of the Volunteer Award is Sacha Smith.
Sacha has volunteered for Pet Blood Bank both in our office and at our donation sessions during her time studying at Loughborough University.

Before going into her final year, Sacha decided to reach out to the university and set up an action project for Pet Blood Bank, which would see regular volunteers help in our office throughout her final year. This project would also become her legacy as it would ensure that we always had student volunteers to help us even after she graduated. This was such an innovative idea of Sacha’s and was something she thought would be a huge help to us – and she was right!
Since 2019, Sacha has amazed us with her compassion and selflessness.

This award is just a small way of expressing our gratitude – thank you so much Sacha.

We would also like to congratulate our Volunteer runners up, Wendy and Steve Blake.

They have attended lots of events to promote Pet Blood Bank, speak to people, and raise awareness. They are also heavily involved in their local community and have appeared on the radio and in the media to give interviews and talk about their experience of bringing their own dogs, Dillon and Rufus, to donate blood.
A heartfelt thank you, from us to you.

A huge congratulations and thank you to all our fabulous winners!
www.petbloodbankuk.org