Our Special Friends

What we do
Who we help
How we work
Our people

Our Team

Belinda Johnston

MA VetMB MRCVS

Founder and Chief Executive

Belinda trained as a vet and worked in London, becoming a founding partner of a veterinary practice in Battersea. Life experiences and her time in practice stimulated her interest in the relationship between people and their pets – the mutual benefits these relationships offer and the impact of losing them. Moving to Suffolk, she developed her person-centred approach and trained in bereavement support and counselling. She now lectures veterinary and animal welfare staff on how to help people cope with companion animal end of life decisions and loss.

She saw the need for a charity which would promote and enhance the bond between people and their animals, providing support to enable these relationships to continue through difficult times, whilst empowering and supporting difficult decisions and loss. Our Special Friends was born! Today Belinda is our Chief Executive. She is also our main practitioner, visiting potential users of the services we offer, assessing their needs and matching them to appropriate support from our volunteers and affiliate organisations. She believes firmly that people need pets and pets need people because they both benefit from being together – but they need to be a good match and, when necessary, to be supported by others to maintain the relationship.

Mark Toller

Finance Director

Mark is a Chartered Accountant, who after working at board level in banking and investment management in the city, joined Juddmonte Farms and served as their Chief Financial Officer for nearly 20 years. Subsequently he acted as a part time Finance Director for the National Horseracing Museum in Newmarket whilst advising a number of private clients on their tax and business affairs. Mark is now coming to help Our Special Friends on financial matters and the development of their future business plans.

Anna Hunt

Trusts and Grants Manager

Anna is an experienced Trusts and Foundations Manager with fifteen years’ experience in the voluntary sector and a Distinction in the Certificate in Fundraising from the Institute of Fundraising. Amongst other things some of her key career achievements have included managing a small team which secured over £1.7m in a single financial year for EACH, personally raising over £1.8m over four years for Action for Children and previously £1.5m over four years for St Nicholas Hospice Care. She has also secured major grants from the St. James’s Place Foundation, the Big Lottery Fund, the Thompson Family Charitable Trust, the Bradbury Foundation, the Department of Health, the Primary Care Trust, the Wolfson Foundation, the Henry Smith Charity and other grant-givers. Anna will be helping Our Special Friends by researching and applying for funding opportunities.

Trustees

Mark Johnston

Chair

Mark Johnston trained as a vet and worked initially at a large equine practice in Newmarket where he took a special interest in equine anaesthesia and intensive care. He subsequently earned a PhD in this area. He is now Managing Director of Vetstream, a company providing online clinical information, continuing professional development, websites and other digital services to veterinary practices.

Robert Ferguson

Treasurer

Robert is an experienced chartered accountant. He qualified with KPMG in 1979 and worked in the firm’s London, New York, Silicon Valley and East Anglian offices. He was senior partner of the East Anglian practice from 2004 to 2009. In 2012, Robert joined the law firm Ashtons Legal (then known as AKCJ) as Finance Director and is now their Chief Strategy Officer and a director of Ashtons Franchise Consulting Ltd. Ashtons is a full service legal practice with offices across East Anglia.

As a corporate auditor and investigator, Robert advised a wide range of businesses on strategy, organisation, financial control and processes. More recently that experience has been put to use at Ashtons as part of a management team working to develop a progressive modern law firm. He is keen to help OSF manage the next stage of its growth.

Robert is married, with four grown up children. He enjoys cycling and music.

Elizabeth Ormerod

As Small Animal House Physician Elizabeth was responsible for Glasgow University’s charity veterinary clinic during which period she became attuned to the significance of companion animals in the lives of vulnerable people. Elizabeth has pioneered bond-centred veterinary practice – taking the needs of her clients into account and tailoring treatment plans accordingly. With multidisciplinary collaboration she developed outreach programmes, delivering Animal Assisted Intervention (AAI) programmes to schools, nursing homes, hospitals, sheltered housing, psychiatric hospitals and prisons.

Elizabeth has travelled widely to visit model AAI programmes, as a Churchill Fellow, and additional overseas study trips to N America and Asia. Elizabeth is a Vice President of The International Association of Human-animal Interaction Organisations (IAHAIO); Past Chair and a director of SCAS; co-founder and Vice President of Canine Partners, the UK assistance dog programme; and a visiting lecturer to veterinary schools. She is recognised internationally for her work in anthrozoology and was awarded the Inaugural International William F McCulloch Award for excellence in human-animal interaction education and practice.

Carolyn Bradburne

Fundraising and Events Co-ordinator

Carolyn held senior positions in financial control and planning for major fashion retailers such as the Burton Group and River Island for many years before moving to the voluntary sector. Since then, she has built up considerable experience in fundraising for a wide variety of charities, including Spinal Research, Motor Neurone Disease, St Nicholas Hospice in Bury St Edmunds and the restoration appeal for the Theatre Royal in Bury St Edmunds. Carolyn contributes to the management of our finances, fundraising and events.

Support Team

Jane Paley

Jane has spent most of her adult life either being a volunteer with charities benefitting children and families or working with volunteers in various Suffolk and Norfolk charities. She has worked as a Project Manager for the Campaign for Single Housing (now Solo Housing), helping to set up a charity finding accommodation for single homeless people. She has also worked as Norfolk Community Fundraiser for East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices (EACH) and, more recently, as West Suffolk Volunteer Manager with Age UK Suffolk.

Jane certainly recognises the enormous value that volunteers bring to charity organisations and her aim is to develop the existing and new stars of the Our Special Friends volunteer team, increasing both the number and geographical spread of human and animal companions that can be helped.

Linda Sadler

Linda has spent all her working life with horses and dogs; working in the horse racing industry in both riding out and admin roles (racing secretary and bloodstock agent). This involved dealing with Owners, Trainer, Vets and was at a high level. Over the last 12 years Linda has become more involved with dogs and cats, helping in boarding kennels, dog walking and house sitting, where she looks after all animals “great and small” from horses, to alpacas, cats and fish…..

Taking her interest in veterinary and animal welfare a stage further, Linda studied these subjects and gained an Animal Nursing Assistant certificate and an Advanced Diploma as an Equine Nursing Technician. Both these qualifications involved work experience in veterinary practices, small animal and equine. This practical and academic experience is proving very helpful at Our Special Friends, as Linda is able to deal with cases/clients and discuss their animals, obtaining their veterinary history to assist in whatever way is necessary. Linda is also able to assess potential AAA visiting dogs, when they come for interview with their owner

Sally Bycroft

Sally is a PR and marketing professional who has worked with both agencies and direct clients over the years and latterly as a freelance marketing consultant. Sally joined Our Special Friends in July 2017 to help develop the marketing communications and streamline the PR and marketing process.

Susan Bradwell

Susan supports the financial side of Our Special Friends.

Bil Thorn

Bil’s career started off as a cordon bleu cook in both wine bars and Directors Boardrooms for over 15 years. She then had a career change, firstly working as a Secretary/PA for an importer of Italian ceramics, then as a PA/School Secretary for a private school with children from 2.5 – 11yrs. After getting married she moved back to Suffolk. She had her first experience in working in the charity sector with The Prince’s Trust, then as secretary/administrator working in Norwich. Getting fed up with the commute, a change of carer was called for. Having experienced the wonderful work that OSF do, with firstly finding a dog for her elderly father, then having to re-home the dog when her father recently passed away, the opportunity arose for her to join us as Office Admin which she started on 1^st October 2018. She looks forward to having her own dog very soon.

Our Volunteers

To date we have 81 active volunteers helping OSF with their clients and their animals over the West Suffolk and Thetford areas.

Our Animal Helpers

We currently have a record number of 31 AAA dogs helping our Volunteers to visit people in our community.

As of today, we have volunteers walking 17 of our clients dogs. We have teams of volunteers looking after some pets so that their walking needs can be met.

These figures are changing all the time as our requirement change pretty much on a daily basis.

Affiliate Organisations

St Nicholas Hospice Care

St Nicholas Hospice Care provides practical, medical, emotional and spiritual support to local people and their families who are living with an illness that is life threatening such as cancer, multiple sclerosis, motor neurone disease, heart or lung disease. They offer support to people in their own homes and cover the West Suffolk and Thetford areas.

Age UK Suffolk

Age UK Suffolk works with, and for, older people in Suffolk, campaigning with them, and on their behalf. It also provides direct services and support across the county.

Cats Protection

Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket Branch

Cats Protection looks after abandoned and unwanted cats and kittens, giving them food, shelter and veterinary care until new homes can be found.

Ageing with Optimism

Ageing with Optimism is a local business which aims to help people get the very best out of growing older.