Amanda Holden Picks a Winner!
The winning ticket in the Pollyanna Pickering Foundation 2012 Winter Prize draw has been drawn by actress and television presenter Amanda Holden (left with Pollyanna). The lucky winner, L. Moore of Chesterfield, has won an original painting by multi award winning artist Pollyanna featuring a fox in a snowy landscape.
Familiar to most people as a judge on the hugely popular show ‘Britain’s Got Talent’, Amanda has also starred in many TV series including ‘Cutting It’ and ‘Wild at Heart’, and recently appeared on the West End stage as Princess Fiona in ‘Shrek’. A great animal lover, Amanda is a regular supporter of The Born Free Foundation, and was pleased to find time in her busy schedule to join Pollyanna to pick the winners in the annual prize draw.
The £1360.00 raised by the prize draw has been donated to the Leicester Wildlife Hospital. In April last year more than 500 people turned up to see Pollyanna officially cut the ribbon and open the brand new purpose built Kibworth Wildlife Hospital and Education centre. The Leicester Wildlife hospital itself has been running for nearly 20 years taking in all kinds of sick injured and orphaned wildlife from Leicestershire and surrounding counties. With space at a premium, a larger facility was urgently needed. Pollyanna very much enjoyed a tour of the new hospital, meeting several of the patients being cared for, saying “I was extremely impressed with the facilities built here – it is a wonderful resource for wildlife in the East Midlands. Having run a wildlife sanctuary myself, I appreciate just how hard the founder Angie Downham and all of the volunteers work to rescue and rehabilitate the animals and birds they care for. Their dedication is inspirational.”
Pollyanna was therefore shocked and saddened when she learned several weeks later that Thieves had raided the hospital, stealing thousands of pounds worth of metal cages and leaving birds and hedgehogs dead and dying.
They stole 26 stainless steel and aluminium cages, after turfing the sick animals out of them.
Hospital volunteer Julia Simonson told us how she turned up at the hospital to a scene of devastation and destruction. “I saw sick animals either dead or dying on the floor. The people who did this ripped the cages off the walls and threw the animals out. It was heartbreaking to see all the animals I and other volunteers care for and nurture just lying there cowering or wandering about distressed.” The thieves had ransacked all six rooms at the hospital and left the site in disarray. Since then volunteers have been working tirelessly to re-equip the hospital.
The funds raised by the Pollyanna Pickering Foundation will buy new cages and pens to replace some of the stolen and damaged equipment.
Pollyanna Pickering Foundation Grand Draw
Drawn December 2012 by Amanda Holden and Pollyanna Pickering
First Prize : 1349 : Original Painting : L. Moore, Chesterfield
Runner Up Prize of framed signed limited edition print:
1150 : Ms M. Cooper, Derbyshire
Runner Up Prizes of signed limited edition prints:
1584 : S. Mellors, Mansfield
1617 : Mr Norman, Bury St Edmunds
1586: Ms A Humberstone, Sheffield
1119 : Miss Dethick, Chesterfield
1274: The Leicestershire Vegetarian Society
Runner Up Prizes of Tetley Tea Book and tea packs :
1592 : Miss Deaton, Nottinghamshire
1051: I. Jones, Hull
1721: Mr S. Blake, Sheffield
Runner Up Prize of a bird watching Kit
1218: Mr P. Beattie, Wrexham
The sales of prize draw tickets have raised £1,360.00 which has been donated to the Leicester Wildlife Hospital.
With thanks to Amanda Holden for giving her time to assist with the Prize Draw.