We're expecting 2026 to be our busiest year EVER (it's already our busiest start to a year).  

 

We started 2025 with 35 Drivers Teams - and helped 793 animals to emergency care - and we're starting 2026 with 53 Drivers Teams now - and more requests for Drivers Teams have recently come in too - so I am anticipating a possible 1500 wildlife casualties & orphans being requested to get to emergency care / a second chance this year). 💚

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It's been SUCH ​an explosive start to 2026 - and this year is looking to be SO busy - that ​I've made a BIG decision to get us prepared for Spring...  I need to use February & March to get us as close to £3895.16, in reliable monthly income (monthly donors & equally kind sponsors) as I can.

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This is our UKWT quiet season (December to March) during which we have a bit more time to focus on keeping going & growing - making sure we’re working to fill in all of the transport gaps in the UK, bit by bit - and making sure that we’re ready to say ‘yes’ to every transport request that comes in, during the Spring/Summer craziness.

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🎉 Before Spring 2026 (around April) I must have got us into the following position, so that we're not letting animals down by not having enough Drivers & funding to help them:

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• Our monthly costs are approximately £3895.16.  See the COST BREAKDOWN here.  Once Spring hits, I will be working way more than full time hours just to oversee all of the transport requests for wildlife that will be pinging in.  [Fundraising at the same time, to fund even our most basic costs then, simply won't be possible.]  So, I need to use February & March to get us as close to £3895.16, in reliable monthly income (monthly donors & fab sponsors) as I can.  ONLY by getting us set up financially like this, will we be able to say 'yes' to the up to 1500 animals I am expecting us to be asked to help.

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• Before April, there looks to be approximately 9 more UKWT Drivers Teams to be set up for more Wildlife Rescues & Vet Practices.

 

• As I work very hard over February & March to create a solid funding foundation for UKWT, I will use the first lot of funding that comes in to fund Driver Recruitment Adverts (at least £1200 worth) to double our Driver Database and especially boost areas where we need significantly more Drivers, like the Lake District, the North Wales coastline & a few other spots.

 

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❤️ What will these plans achieve, come Spring? 

 

• Almost doubling our Driver Database will help us to, hopefully, ALWAYS be able to say ‘yes’ to transport requests for up to 1500 wildlife casualties/orphans, so that they can always get to the emergency care that they need (and hopefully get a second chance at a life back out in the wild). 

 

• Setting up new Drivers Teams for Wildlife Rescues means that more Rescues will have enough Drivers to send out to pick up wildlife casualties/orphans from members of the public who can’t transport themselves (ensuring that those animals don’t die in people’s homes/workplaces, just because they can’t be got to emergency care).

 

• Setting up new Drivers Teams for as many Vet Practices as possible has, possibly, our BIGGEST impact… It can be very difficult for busy Vet Practices, however much they care about wildlife, to treat wildlife casualties (and not just euthanase on arrival) because the casualty will always need to be moved onto a Rescue Centre for longer term rehab afterwards.  By providing Vets with their own list of local Volunteer Transport Drivers (recruited, equipped & funded by UKWT) we support Vets to treat wildlife and then move them out of the Practice site, instead of thinking that their only logistical option is to ‘Put To Sleep.’

 

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👏  We need to fund all of this work and I only have 2 months to make it all happen.  Once Spring hits, we'll just be rolling from transport to transport (up to 20 transports a day) so we need to get prepared NOW.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​