Carole Wiggins
It was with great sadness and shock that we heard of the passing of our friend Carole Wiggins. She was an amazing lady and a great supporter of Donkey Dreamland.
Carole was one of the first visitors to Donkey Dreamland. She first came in September 2020 just two months after I opened the sanctuary. From the first moment all she wanted to do was to help. At the time I said it was just a small project and we were still finding our way. We didn’t even have a bank account, but she insisted on giving me some money to help progress things further.
Carole continued to visit and each time she left generous donations. One time during a visit she felt the donkeys would benefit from some sunshade and insisted on leaving a donation to cover the not insignificant cost, so that they could have a bit more shelter from the hot summer sun.
On a more recent occasion, she made another substantial donantion directly to the Donkey Dreamland without even saying anything! The first we knew was when a banking reconciliation was done and we had to back track to see where the payment had come from!
But Carole’s involvement with Donkey Dreamland was so much more. Despite some physical limitations, she was desperately keen to be a volunteer so that she could, in her words “make a practical contribution”.
Many of our rescue donkeys are extremely nervous of human interaction when they first arrive at Donkey Dreamland so I suggested that she could make a big difference by sitting in the paddock of the latest arrivals and just let them get used to a human presence. I suggested we set her up with a really comfortable chair (which we still have) in the paddock and she could sit and read and let them get used to her presence. And this is what Carole did many times until sadly the steep and rocky nature of the route to the paddock meant she couldn’t do it any longer. Carole had such a huge heart and she had a big impact on their recuperation and a big impact on Donkey Dreamland.
Just a few short weeks ago she spent time at the sanctuary participating in one of our Sound Healing sessions, and as the picture above shows, it was the donkeys that had her interest.
She will be greatly missed, but forever remembered too. Thank you Carole. Our condolences go out to all of her family and friends.
Her daughter Lesley, has kindly asked us to create this page in order that Carole’s friends may donate to Donkey Dreamland, in her memory.
Amaya Isert
