We would like to raise the money to buy three much needed items of emergency equipment for our hedgehog rescue, to give us the best chance at saving abandoned and orphan baby hedgehogs as well as extremely sick adults.

We have self-funded most of the hedgehog treatment and equipment so far, and have only recently started accepting donations. We never expected there to be such a demand for hedgehog care with some days we receive 3 or 4 hedgehogs. It costs around £50, on average, per hedgehog for medical treatment and food. We cannot provide everything ourselves and need your generous help.

How the money will be spent:

£100 buys a nebuliser and medication

£300 buys suction machine and consumables

£600 buys intensive care incubator

£1000 will buy us one of each, the more money raised the more incubators we will buy. Any extra will be put towards medication and vet bills.

Hedgehogs are declining rapidly in Britain with the population plummeting by 30% nationally, and up to 50% in some areas, over the last 20 years.

Myself and my family started looking after hedgehogs last year when we found a hedgehog out during the day, a key indicator there is something wrong. We contacted a local rescue who were able to treat the hedgehog. It was too small to be released, and they were struggling with the high numbers of patients, so we were asked if we could take it home and feed it up. So began the slippery slope, fast forward 6 months and we had our own "prickle" of hedgehogs overwintering with us.

After falling in love with these endearing creatures we wanted to do more. With the support of other local rescues, we began being mentored in hedgehog first aid, treatment and rehabilitation. As we grew in size and enthusiasm, we decided we'd take the plunge and form a rescue and Prickly Pigs Hedgehog Rescue was established.

If you would like to know more about what we do and how we help hedgehogs please visit our Facebook page.

www.facebook.com/pricklypigshedgehogrescue or our website www.pricklypigs.co.uk We also have an amazon wish list.

We have self-funded the majority of the set up costs and treatments so far and we desperately need your assistance in helping us treat more hedgehogs and giving those we do treat the best opportunity to return to a healthy, normal wild existence.

Every little helps, thank you.

Diane Cook