The Tail End

In our news-in-brief section this time, we take our hat off to David (who’s taking on an enormous challenge to raise money for us); and send a massive thanks for donations of food and PPE we have received.

When our good friend David Padmore, from Gargrave in North

Yorkshire, contacted us to say he wanted to raise money for us, we never expected that he would be tackling "Britain's most brutal race". The Montane Winter Spine starts on 11 January 2026 and David is hoping to finish it three days later, on the 14 January. It's a non-stop, self-supported foot race, a 268-mile ultramarathon along the Pennine Way from Edale to Kirk Yetholm. We will be following his every move when the time comes - in fact everyone can follow his progress (“dot-watch”) on the official Montane Spine Race page, thespinerace.com

"I moved with my partner, Melanie, to Gargrave, on the southern edge of the Yorkshire Dales, in 2020," says David. "It’s impossible to live for long in Gargrave without being aware of the work of Craven Wildlife Rescue. Their small but incredibly hard-working team seem to be constantly in the area, collecting injured hedgehogs, owls, ducks, deer, buzzards, swans and any other animals or birds that need help. 

"We live right by a flooded field and a small stream which passes through a culvert under our house. Somehow, the local ducks know this and quite often end up with their ducklings at our front door or on our busy road. We’ve collected many of them, as well as injured swans and even a cormorant, and ferried them to Craven Wildlife Rescue who have taken them in, helped them to recover and then released them back into the wild. It feels like the least we can do is to try to give something back through fundraising. CWR performs such a vital job for the wildlife in our area and they need your help to make it all possible."

David would love to raise £500 for us. If you would like to give him a boost before he sets off, please consider donating by clicking here. He's taking on an unbelievably difficult challenge to raise money for us - we cannot thank him enough!

Meanwhile, at the Rescue, we still have 57 hungry hedgehogs recovering with us at the moment. Some are babies from the second litter of the year, some are growing young adults and some are waiting to be released. We put a shout-out for food recently and have been bowled over by your contributions. Thanks so much. We were also delighted to be awarded one of Brambles' monthly giveaways - thank you to everyone who nominated us. That means a massive parcel of wet and dry hedgehog food is on its way to us courtesy of them. We truly appreciate every tin, packet and parcel - as do the hogs!

Financial donations are another lifeblood of the Rescue. They give us the flexibility to spend on what is most pressing and the security of knowing that we have the resources to carry on. We want to express our huge gratitude to those who have made a financial donation recently, however large or small.

We'd also like to say a very big thank you to Benjamin Opticians, Skipton for the kind donation of PPE, Visors and disposable aprons. This has saved us a considerable cost as we continue to follow our strict Avian Influenza protocols. We have separate isolation zones and triage before arrival, to protect our volunteers and current avian patients. We have purchased additional PPE of disposable boiler suits and FFP3 masks, and we have strict guidelines and instructions for volunteers in place, with the obligatory foot baths and other precautions in place to help us keep wildlife safe. This means, when you call us regarding a bird, we have to ask specific questions. It is absolutely devastating to hear of any deaths of our wonderful wildlife, and we have to work harder to keep our current and future patients safe. Please be reassured that we are working with our wonderful volunteer vet and other partners to ensure the safety of all.