The Lord Mayor of the City of Manchester, Councillor Donna Ludford, visited our Manchester sanctuary in Abbey Hey recently where she praised the calm and gentle nature of the donkeys and the dedicated team who care for them.
Councillor Donna Ludford visited the sanctuary after nominating The Donkey Sanctuary Manchester to receive a donation from the Raphael Moses Levy Deceased Charitable Trust.
During her visit, the Lord Mayor met staff and the four-legged residents of the centre and heard about the work they do in supporting local people and organisations.
The then Centre Manager Melanie McComb admitted to being 'blown away' when she found out that the Lord Mayor wanted to visit the centre, meet the team and their donkeys, and hear all about the work that they do.
She said: "It is incredible that our centre was nominated by the Lord Mayor, and we were honoured to host a visit for her.
"We had the opportunity to talk about the work that we do, our programmes and the clients that we have supported, as well as the training we do to prepare donkeys for our Rehoming Scheme. We also ensured the Lord Mayor had plenty of time to meet our donkeys and for her to have a moment of wellbeing with them."
After hearing how staff and their donkeys offer support to vulnerable people in the community, the Lord Mayor talked about her own life growing up in the care system and how such programmes could have made such a difference to her life.
The Lord Mayor said: "I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to The Donkey Sanctuary. It's clear to see how much the staff love the donkeys and are so dedicated to caring for them.
"It was great to hear about the hard work that the staff and volunteers do at The Donkey Sanctuary and visiting them was brilliant - I wish there was a place like this to visit when I was growing up!"
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