Davies donates to local mental health charity CHUMS

CHUMS, a mental health and emotional wellbeing service for children and young people based in Bedfordshire has received a boost to its funds of £1,500 from Davies Veterinary Specialists. The Linnaeus-owned small animal referral practice based near Hitchin chose CHUMS as its charity of the year for 2021.

CHUMS supports several services in Bedfordshire and Luton, which rely wholly on charitable funds as they do not receive contractual funding. These include the Trauma Service, the Bedfordshire Suicide Bereavement Service, the Recreational Therapeutic Service, the Babyloss Bereavement Service and the Disability Friendship Scheme in Luton.

Team members at Davies thought of inventive ways to raise money, including a cookbook for which staff came up with climate conscious recipes including organic, locally sourced and seasonal foods, and vegetarian and vegan dishes. Recipes were compiled into a PDF and donations requested for a copy. Meanwhile, the Davies TerraCycle scheme in the staff room raised more money for CHUMS, with the recyclable items sent to TerraCycle in return for a donation.

Three raffles proved popular, giving team members a chance to win prizes including a day’s annual leave, a pamper hamper and a takeaway. In addition, a creative team member’s jam jar flowers were in high demand, in exchange for a donation.

CHUMS corporate and community fund-raising manager Emma Stewart said: “We were thrilled to be so generously supported by Davies during such a challenging period when we were being inundated with extra mental health referrals but our corporate, community and events fund-raising programme was being decimated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Congratulations on coming up with such original climate friendly initiatives – we will definitely be promoting more of these to supporters going forward.”

Davies’ charity for 2022 is StreetVet, which delivers free care to the homeless and their pets on the streets in locations around the UK.

Picture: Savina Hart of client care with clinical director Ronan Doyle and head of nursing Lillian Twigg.

Published on page 9 of the March 2022 issue of RAD Magazine.