charity

Make 'Walk All Over Cancer' your New Year resolution

People in the South West are being challenged to kick start the New Year by taking steps to support Cancer Research UK.

The charity is encouraging everybody who feels they’ve had too many mince pies or helpings of Christmas pudding to sign up now to Walk All Over Cancer and get sponsored to walk 10,000 steps every day for a month.

In the South West, almost a quarter (22 per...

Thousands of meals donated by Plymouth Tesco shoppers this Christmas

Thousands of meals have been donated to food banks and groups feeding people, thanks to the generosity of Tesco’s Plymouth shoppers, figures released today reveal.

Plymouth shoppers donated 14,062 meals as part of the overall total of 2.5 million meals donated to charities the Trussell Trust and FareShare by shoppers during last month’s Tesco Food Collection, with Tesco topping up...

Kind-hearted couple launch charity in memory of their daughter

A couple from Plymouth have launched a charity which will support bereaved parents who have suffered neonatal loss or stillbirth.

Aimee and Ryan Conroy felt compelled to do something to help future bereaved parents after their little girl, Luna Valentina Conroy, was sadly born sleeping in November 2017.

“We wanted to embrace a new journey,” said Aimee and Ryan. “Something we...

Hospital festive fundraising makes £1108 for local charity

Big-hearted patients, visitors and members of staff at Peninsula NHS Treatment Centre have raised an amazing £1108 through a number of festive activities, in aid of the hospital’s chosen charity – Improving Lives Plymouth.

The fundraising activities included a Christmas Craft Fair with gifts and goodies hand made by members of staff and patients; the sponsored wearing of Christmas...

Hospital Christmas craft fair raises around £700 for local charity

Hand crafted gifts created by patients and members of staff at Peninsula NHS Treatment Centre and sold at the hospital’s Christmas craft fair, have raised around £700 in aid of hospital’s chosen charity, Improving Lives Plymouth.

Mark White, Hospital Director at Peninsula NHS Treatment Centre, commented: “This is the second Christmas craft fair we have hosted, and this year’s has been...

Festive food fun with Santa

They say you shouldn’t play with your food – but at Living Coasts this Christmas, that’s exactly what kids are being encouraged to do. The coastal zoo’s Breakfast with Santa event features food, presents – and penguins.

Living Coasts spokesperson Phil Knowling said: “Children get a pancake to decorate. They can choose from things like banana, strawberries, chocolate drops, cream and...

Gentle by nature?

Paignton Zoo has welcomed a new species – the wonderfully-named gentle lemur. There’s more than a little of the teddy bear about them, with their thick, grey-brown fur and beady amber eyes. The babies are said to be especially cute – and the zoo certainly hopes to see babies in due course.

The gentle lemur – more correctly, the Alaotran gentle lemur - is the only primate that lives...

Zoo shells out for giant tortoise physio

We often reach for a heat pack to ease aches and pains, with maybe a bit of a massage if we’re lucky. This is exactly the treatment 35-year-old Sophie is getting right now. The only difference is – she’s a giant tortoise. Paignton Zoo’s Aldabra giant tortoise Sophie weighs 106 kilos, 233 pounds or 16 stones. She’s one of six confiscated by Customs from an illegal importation and handed to...

The vital search for conservation evidence

It sounds like the latest police drama – the Zoo Evidence Officer is on the case, searching for clues, combing through paperwork and tracking down the truth. In fact, the new post, based at Paignton Zoo in Devon, is about detecting science-based evidence for the best ways to care for, manage and breed animals in zoological collections for conservation purposes. Wild Planet Trust, the charity...

Tiger moves at a snail's pace

This tiger snail at Paignton Zoo weighs around 500 grams – equivalent to 50 garden snails. Individuals can live for ten years. You may not want to see this specimen in your garden, but Paignton Zoo keeper Lauren Lane is besotted with these amazing creatures – and has nick-named this individual Sausage…

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