KIND colleagues from VetPartners baked cakes, swam the Channel, ran marathons and scaled mountains to raise nearly £300,000 for charities and worthy causes during 2023.
Team members from our veterinary practices and animal healthcare businesses in the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Netherlands and Italy, joined forces throughout the year to give good causes a major boost.
They raised a grand total of £294,059, including £19,383 for our chosen charity of 2023, Gambia Horse and Donkey Trust. World Land Trust and Vetlife were among the other charities to benefit.
Of the total figure, £168,059 was raised by team members through a variety of activities and £126,000 was contributed by VetPartners, which matches employee donations. VetPartners also donated £1 for every employee engagement survey completed. The proceeds from clothing donation banks in veterinary practice car parks also contributed more than £3,000 to Gambia Horse and Donkey Trust.
The amount raised last year was almost double the 2022 total of £149,895.
World Land Trust, an international conservation charity that protects the world’s most threatened habitats and species, received £38,124 through its partnership with VetPartners, which sponsors team building and wellbeing events organised by its employees across Europe.
VetPartners is also a passionate supporter of Vetlife, and together, colleagues raised £39,903 for the charity that provides emotional, financial and mental health support to the veterinary community.
VetPartners CEO Jo Malone said: “Our team members are very dedicated in their practice every day, and yet in their spare time, they are doing amazing things, often going to great lengths to help other people and animals.
“When you look at the number of fundraising activities going on in practices, it is so heartwarming and shows how caring the veterinary profession is. People give up a lot of time and put in huge physical effort to raise vital funds for charities and worthy causes, whether in their own community or beyond.”
Throughout 2023, 216 charities and worthy causes were supported by VetPartners colleagues, who carried out some incredible fundraising feats.
VetPartners Germany bought two generators, surgical materials and disinfectants for two practices in Ukraine after donating 5€ for every kilometre pedalled on a stationary bike at trade shows.
VetPartners France donated money towards the Pères-Noël verts campaign organised by Le Secours Populaire, a charity providing gifts to children who would otherwise not receive them at Christmas. They also donated to World Land Trust for every survey completed at Ruminant Vet Congress and during a team building event for colleagues.
Vet Caroline Frith, pictured left, who works at Goddard Veterinary Group in London and is living with stage four secondary breast cancer, raised £28,155 for Maggie’s Cancer Centre at St Bartholomew’s Hospital by running the London Marathon. VetPartners contributed £4,581 through donation matching.
Biobest veterinary advisor Victoria Enoch swam the English Channel in aid of Say It Loud Club, while Westside Vets vet Georgina Friend also took part in a relay swim of the Channel to raise money for Vetlife.
In Spain, VetPartners donated money to help modernise an operating room at GREFA Wildlife Rescue Centre, and to Global Vets Aid from money raised from a fun event at the VetPartners Spain Congress in Madrid.
StreetVet, which offers free veterinary care and services to pets belonging to those experiencing homelessness, is set to benefit from the kindness and generosity of colleagues across VetPartners in the UK after they voted it as our chosen charity of 2024.
For media enquiries, please contact Amanda Little, VetPartners PR and Communications Director at amanda.little@vetpartners.co.uk or 07970 198492
