Marathon marriages, speeding sheep and an eggy entrepreneur – meet the fabulous supporters who’ve been raising funds for the BHWT this month…
Natalie’s Jurassic parkrun (well, Marathon…)
First off a big hand for Natalie Russell, one of our London Marathon 2027 runners – whose love affair with chickens started, charmingly enough, with a dinosaur.
As a child, Natalie remembers watching David Attenborough explain how dinosaurs never really disappeared: they evolved into birds. Then up popped a chicken on screen.
“In my tiny mind I was like, ‘Oh my God, chickens are so cool. They’re dinosaurs!’” she remembers. “That really stuck with me.”
Natalie, from Bishop’s Stortford, has cared deeply about animal welfare ever since. She describes chickens as among the “overused and overlooked” creatures of the animal world and, although a household of rescue cats means she hasn’t yet been able to rehome hens herself, she has supported the BHWT for around four years.
London will be Natalie’s second marathon after completing Brighton three years ago. She freely admits she’s “not a natural runner”, but with an international marathon veteran Ian devising her training plan – and applying gel mid-race. Aww – she’s already building up the miles and strength work.
“I quite like challenging myself, even if it’s a bit scary,” she says. “London is iconic. It’s a mixture of extreme excitement and a bit of fear. But I will 100% do it.”
Team Natalie is already gearing up. Her sister lives right on the eight-mile mark and is planning posters, chicken-themed cakes and a suitably hen-heavy cheering station. Natalie is even contemplating some chicken-inspired racewear herself.
So if you happen to spot a woman running around Hertfordshire with a chicken on her head over the coming months, don’t panic. It’s not a dinosaur.
Support Natalie here.
Emily is hitting her stride
Emily Short has loved hens for almost as long as she can remember. She got her first chickens aged just four and, more than 25 years later, the obsession shows little sign of letting up.
This Septemer, Emily swapped chicken runs for Run Reigate, tackling the 10K to raise money for the BHWT.
Among her childhood flock were Smokey and Ginger, while current favourite Hazel is, like Smokey, a Pekin Bantam. “I may or may not have a favourite breed!” admits Emily.
She says hens are “affectionate, joyful and intelligent” animals that deserve the chance to feel grass beneath their feet and sunshine on their backs. Emily dreams of rehoming ex-commercial hens as soon as she has a garden of her own.
In the meantime, the family flock already earns its keep in one particularly useful way.
“If we get any big scary spiders in the house, we grab one of our girls and they munch on them!”
Emily smashed her £200 fundraising target.
Amanda bags a new bezzie
A moment’s respectful silence please. Amanda’s hen, Enid, recently lost her best mate Flora. “It was heartbreaking watching Enid bumbling around the garden on her own,” recalls Amanda.
When the next BHWT rehoming day rolled around, Amanda signed up to volunteer – and brought home two new girls of her own.
She deliberately chose the baldest two hens there, Primrose and Pansy. Why? To savour the joy of watching them blossom into the fully feathered ladies they were always destined to be.
First impressions were positive. Enid is already “besotted” with Primrose and has been showing her the ropes, while more independent-minded Pansy is apparently quite content doing her own thing.
Amanda also made a wonderfully generous £50 donation when she rehomed the pair, helping more hens get the same second chance.
As for where hens sit in Amanda’s ranking of life’s little luxuries?
“Give me hens any day over shoes and handbags.”
Quite so.
Stephanie has a field day
When Stephanie decided to celebrate her 69th birthday, she didn’t settle for cake and a few balloons. She turned the whole thing into her very own country show – and raised almost £300 for the BHWT in the process.
Nice!
Guests were treated to cake and craft stalls, line dancing and even a brass band, while the entertainment included a sheep race and the chance to make keyrings from sheep’s wool.
Sounds like our sort of shindig.
Best of all, Stephanie used the celebrations to help hens.
Happy birthday Stephanie, you’re the best 🎂
Frankie is doing numbers
Frankie Thomas found herself giving away surplus hens’ eggs to colleagues. Then she realised she might be missing a trick.
So Frankie started selling them instead, swiftly raising over £35 from her generous workmates and donating the proceeds to the BHWT via our super-duper Egg Club.
Still, Frankie was only just getting cracking.
Frankie approached JTC Gives, the charitable arm of her employer, JTC Group, which responded with an unexpected £250 donation of its own.
Frankie’s five-strong flock may not be ex-commercial hens, but they’re certainly doing their bit for those who are. And what a flock they are – Madge Bishop (what a reference!) the self-appointed mother hen, alongside Susan Kennedy, Empress Nero, Fandango and Esmerelda.
“I was so pleased to be helping the BHWT and rescue hens in this way,” says Frankie, who works in JTC’s Edinburgh office and has been with the company for more than a decade.
Best of all, the egg sales are still booming – Frankie is quiet the hentrepreneur.
