Campaign for Wildlife Aid’s New Hospital (Simon’s Last Wish)
Wildlife Aid (Surrey) is a wonderful organisation in Surrey that has helped hundreds of thousands of creatures. It was founded by former city broker Simon Cowell MBE, who sadly died due to aggressive cancer in June 2024.
Join the campaign for Wildlife Aid’s new hospital, in his memory!
Need help? If within the catchment area, contact Wildlife Aid with a full description, and ideally send a photo or video via email or app, for them to assess the situation.
Learn how to help your local wildlife rescues.
A passionate and outspoken advocate for animal welfare, in the course of his many rescues, he was bitten by hedgehogs, gored by deer (one antler missed his jugular by around an inch) and one owl sunk his talons into Simon’s scalp!
Actress Joanna Page, who volunteered for a few months at the sanctuary
How to help Wildlife Aid hospital
The easiest way to help is to set up an account at easyfundraising and set Wildlife Aid as your cause. Then each time you buy something from participating stores (or services), a portion goes to them (at no cost to you, and loyalty points are not affected).
You can donate at Just Giving to reach the target of £4 million. Or select ‘Wildlife Aid Foundation’ at Charities Aid Foundation and tick the box, to donate anonymously. Either way, tick the Gift Aid Box.
The centre (which has over 300 volunteers) also offers placement for vet students. Read latest rescue stories (a fox that fell in a swimming pool, and a hibernating dormouse found at the bottom of a recycling bin).
If you live within a 45-minute drive from Leatherhead and have suitable land, they welcome hedgehog release sites. These must have suitable cover and food, shallow sloping water sources and no chain linked fences (and be unsecure about for hogs to roam up to an acre at night (the size of around 8 average gardens).
More on founder Simon Cowell (not that one!)
Although music media mogul Simon Cowell also loves animals, the founder of Wildlife Aid was a different man, just had the same name. He did say that it often got him restaurant reservations easily!
He was also know to the public, for being the man who kept running around rescuing wildlife in the popular TV series Wildlife SOS that aired a few years ago.
Simon ended his life as one of England’s top conservationists and wildlife rescuers. But that’s not how his life started. In fact, he was a former commodities broker in the city , who collapsed from stress and realised he wanted to work with injured animals instead.
Today his Leatherhead charity in Surrey is a legacy that rescues over 20,000 animals each year, with most released safely back to the wildlife.
A famous loudmouth (Ricky Gervais called him ‘David Attenborough with Tourettes’), he was not shy about outing those who pretend to care for wildlife, but use them in the name of entertainment on TV. He only got close to animals to rescue them – watch three rescues by Simon, to show his legacy.
Before he died, Simon asked us to ‘do one thing’ each day, like picking up a piece of litter on the street and placing it in a secure bin. Or creating hedgehog highways. Or being a wildlife-friendly driver. If we all did this (in a country of 68 million people), wildlife rescues would have far fewer casualties to rescue and operate on.
Man is the common factor in almost every animal we treat. Every animal we release back to the wild can then breed and increase populations. I want to make sure that every wild life who’s found gets given another chance – or the kindness of a stranger in their final moments. Simon Cowell
