[Gpdd] Peter Gurney and the Dr Hadwen Trust

[Cazza177]

Dear all

I work for the Dr Hadwen Trust (one of the charities Peter Gurney
supported).  We fund medical research without the use of animals.  My area
is to compile and research our mail order catalogue.  I wanted to say thank
you to all of you who have show an interest in our charity's website as a
tribute to Peter Gurney.

I though you may like to know of my connection with him shortly before he
died.

For our forthcoming mail order catalogue we are offering pewter guinea pig
asthma lapels sold in aid of our asthma research project. Sadly, standard
research usually uses guinea pigs for this type of research.

We emailed Peter and asked him if he would like to give a message of support
for the guinea pig lapels, and he kindly approved a quote in June.  I had
long wanted to connect Peter Gurney to the Trust because his endorsement of
our work meant so much to me.  I respect so much how he has furthered the
public's knowledge of guinea pig welfare and given us all a much better
uderstanding of guinea pigs health.

Nearly every sentence I utter about my guinea pigs begins 'Peter Gurney
says..' because as far as I am concerned what Peter Gurney didn't know about
guinea pigs wasn't worth knowing.

Peter's quote for our guinea pig asthma lapels is to be included in our
forthcoming fund-raising catalogue with a small note about Peter's sad
passing and his belief in our work.

Before that, Peter Gurney had been emailing the general secretary of the
Trust and sent some great images of his pigs that he'd taken (some with
bongos and other musical instruments!). They discussed their shared love of
jazz and he knew immediately why I had named my guinea pigs BG and Artie
(after jazz clarinetists Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw).  We even asked him
about BG's watery eye and he kindly gave some suggestions for that.

I think what I most like about Peter is that he never made himself
inaccessible.  He wanted as many people as possible to learn about how truy
wonderful guinea pigs are and how best to care for them, and if you asked
him for advice, he was never too busy to give it.

I am very proud that Peter will be in our new catalogue.  In his books and
sound advice he left a great legacy for guinea pig lovers the world over.

Thank you again to all of you who have taken a look at our website.  It's
very kind of you.

Kind regards

Carole Welsey
Dr Hadwen trust
http://www.drhadwentrust.org.uk