Previous winners and finalists

Since the Petplan & ADCH Animal Charity Awards began in 2013, we have been honoured to recognise some truly deserving teams and individuals who devote their lives to helping animals in need.

Each awards ceremony has been an inspirational celebration of animal charities, their employees and volunteers' achievements.

Find out more about these outstanding winners and finalists below.

Animal Charity Awards 2016

Highlights from the 2016 Petplan & ADCH Animal Charity Awards

Animal Charity Awards 2015

Animal Charity Volunteer of the Year

Animal Charity Employee of the Year

Animal Charity Team of the Year

Winner's story 2015

Ben Wilkes - Animal Charity Volunteer of the Year 2015

Major Tom

Ben Wilkes from Border Collie Trust GB in Staffordshire won Animal Charity Volunteer of the Year at the Petplan & ADCH Animal Charity Awards back in April 2015. The Trust rescue and rehome border collies throughout the UK.

"I'm an active member of the Association of Dogs and Cats Homes (ADCH), and have been involved in the Animal Charity Awards since it launched in 2013. Knowing people have taken the trouble to nominate you is very special. When I was notified about being one of three finalists for the Animal Charity Volunteer of the Year award it gave me a great morale boost, and winning on the night was a fantastic moment!

In another respect, the £1,500 cheque from the Petplan Charitable Trust has been used towards a variety of enrichment ideas that now take pride of place at the centre. This includes a dog adventure area with ramps, cubes and other agility based features, plus a dog training platform for outside exercise space. We've also experienced added publicity, helping to raise awareness and bring our work to the attention of people who may not have known what we do before. We get collies coming here from owners' homes, other rescues and farms. We also handle numerous enquiries each day regarding advice on ownership, medical help, legal issues, behavioural concerns and so on.

Here at the charity we see many differing cases, and in 2010 a collie called Major Tom came to the centre when his owners couldn't cope with his behaviour. He was very excitable, but also deaf, making everything twice as difficult to manage. Luckily eight months later we rehomed Major Tom to a lady with mobility issues and this sparked a positive change in his behaviour. They were a perfect match. Sadly in 2014 the lady was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and as a result Major Tom came back to us. This time round we didn't know if we would be able to find him the same kind of home so easily. But 12 months ago someone took him on and thankfully it has gone really well again. Successful rehoming is incredibly important to us.

The awards have truly become an excellent part of the annual ADCH Conference and showcase the great work being done by animal welfare organisations every single day. I know the employees and volunteers at the Trust can't wait for the next campaign!"

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