Mum and daughter, 8, to tackle inflatables to raise funds for animal charity

The Ark Animal Rescue’s assistant manager ​Laura Wootton and her eight-year-old daughter Belle will be taking on the Lincoln Inflatable 5k challenge this summer to raise funds for their family’s charity.

The Ark was founded in 1986 by Pauline Rice, taking on animals of all shapes and sizes including cats, dogs, goats, pigs, chickens, rabbits, guinea pigs, donkeys, and horses.

Pauline died in 2017 and her daughter Sue and granddaughter Laura Wootton took on the charity, and now Laura and Belle are hoping to boost the Ark’s funds with their challenge.

Laura said: “It’s something I wanted to do and I thought it should be for a good cause, and Belle has done fundraising for us before with sponsored walks and we thought it would be a good thing for her to do.”

Belle is quite involved with the Ark’s day to day running, and Laura said that she has been looking at the walking of the Ark’s dogs as part of her training, and has been practicing doing pull-ups on the playground equipment to build up her upper body strength!

Laura said that so far, the Ark is managing to cope in the current climate, and that because a number of people have left legacies to the charity in their wills, they’ve been managing.

But after having to purchase two new boilers and having a number of expensive vet treatments to pay for, the more money they can raise for the home’s running costs, the better.

"We’re having a number of animals coming in because their owners have died and their relatives can’t take on their pets,” Laura said, “We’ve also got two 16-year-old cats coming in because their owner has been made homeless and doesn’t want to give them up, but she has no choice because she can’t give them a home when she hasn’t got one herself.”

So far, their fundraising page has raised more than £450 for the Ark, and Laura said the support they have received has been “astronomical”:

"I showed Belle the fundraising page and she was so pleased that people have been so generous,” she said.

Donations of bedding, animal food, cleaning supplies, old towels, and even items such as new cutlery, washing up liquid and washing liquids and powders are always welcome at the Ark to help keep their running costs down.

These can be dropped off at the Ark, located on Donna Nook Road, anytime between 8.30am and 4pm in their collection point outside the gate.

To make a donation to Laura and Belle’s challenge and boost the Ark’s funds, visit their JustGiving page at https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/Arkinflatable5k?utm_term=kVgyB3KJA