NAWT Nominated To Be Irwin Mitchell’s Charity Of The Year

A Berkshire animal welfare charity is set to benefit after staff at the Newbury office of law firm Irwin Mitchell nominated it to be their Charity of the Year for 2018.

The national law firm’s initiative sees staff across each of its offices hold a range of events throughout the year to raise funds for local causes which have been selected through a vote. The programme is part of the work of the Irwin Mitchell Charities Foundation, an independent charity which last year celebrated its 20th anniversary and has raised more than £1.6 million for charities in the UK and abroad.

This year, the Irwin Mitchell Newbury has voted to support the National Animal Welfare Trust’s (NAWT) centre in Berkshire, which is located in Great Shefford, just seven miles from the lawyers’ office.

The NAWT’s Trindledown Farm is a purpose built retirement centre for elderly animals where they look after a range of animals including dogs, cats, birds, goats, ponies, pigs, and sheep. Most of the animals are up for rehoming but due to health issues and age some may stay for the rest of their lives so the surroundings are made to feel very homely. 

NAWT believe every pet should have a responsible owner so educate people to improve the lives of domesticated animals and reduce the number of homeless animals. They also offer a support service to the community to help people cope with the loss of a pet and are always on hand to office advice to those who’ve adopted animals.

Expert Opinion

“The Charity of the Year initiative has been a fundamental part of our efforts to actively support the local communities where we are based for many years and we are proud to have helped a number of incredible causes along the way.

“The NAWT centre in Berkshire does fantastic work to support animals and their owners even after adoption and we are already hard at work planning out the range of events which will be held across the year to raise funds to support the incredible work it does.” Victoria Brackett - Group Chief Commercial Officer

Thames Valley Air Ambulance and West Berkshire Mencap are among the previous organisations supported by Irwin Mitchell’s Newbury office, but this year it is the turn of NAWT Berkshire.

Irwin Mitchell’s support will help animals like 10-year-old Bessie who came into NAWT in 2014 after being found as a stray. Staff soon learned Bessie was an active playful girl and involved her in a number of activities from training in scent work to learning basic manners. Unfortunately Bessie did not get on with other dogs so she stayed at the centre for over three years and helped the staff when they went to schools to educate children about NAWT and its values. Thankfully in 2017 Bessie found a fantastic home where she continues to live a happy life and NAWT still get regular updates.

The funds raised by Irwin Mitchell’s staff in Newbury throughout 2018 will contribute to work being undertaken to expand the centre and attract more visitors to support the work undertaken by NAWT in the area. 

Centre Manager, Tracy Waldron, said: ‘NAWT Berkshire is delighted to have been chosen to be Irwin Mitchell’s charity of the year 2018. As a charity we rely totally on donations so this support will be fantastic to help us with a number of projects we would like to achieve to improve the facilities for all potential adopters and visitors to the centre.

“Improving the current facilities will allow us to create a visiting centre that can help educate and support the community whilst helping towards funding the rescue work we do.’’