As most of you will know, I am a second year vet student at the Royal Veterinary College and perhaps not surprisingly I find myself increasingly concerned about the welfare, support and conservation of our wildlife on this planet. While Covid-19 has been seen predominantly as a human global health crisis, the impact of this pandemic has been far more wide-reaching. Within the animal world, conservation efforts are suffering due to reduced funding, increased poaching and ever more pressure on natural resources, and this in turn is leading to increased human vs. wildlife conflict.  

My small personal contribution to addressing this problem is to join with the charity THE BORN FREE FOUNDATION, an extraordinary organisation that works across the world to preserve, protect and rescue wild animals in need, while finding compassionate conservation solutions to ensure that humankind and wildlife can co-exist peacefully going forward. 

I have set myself two challenges… In April, I will be running The Vitality Half Marathon in London; and then three months later in July, I will be joining with fellow RVC pals to participate in The Three Peaks Challenge - climbing Ben Nevis in Scotland (1345m), Scafell Pike in England (978m) and Snowdon in Wales (1085m) consecutively over 48 hours. I’ll be doing this as part of an RVC Raising and Giving programme in partnership with Choose a Challenge, the proceeds of which will all be going to support The Born Free Foundation.

A big thanks for hearing me out - any support that you can provide would be very much appreciated.