All donations to Hope Pastures' fundraiser to be matched by American company - which previously sponsored Leeds United Ladies

Former Leeds resident Andrew Pinder is the CEO of Kansas based company Pinder Property and has pledged to donate £15 for every £30 raised for the sanctuary before the end of February.

This is part of the #HopePasturesBig30 virtual challenge which was launched at the end of October and encourages people to fundraise however they want to as long as it revolves around the number 30 and raises £30 for the sanctuary.

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The Weetwood sanctuary has been financially impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, and its latest campaign is to reduce the long term impacts that reduced funds would have on its ability to continue to provide food, bedding, medicines and healthcare to its animals.

Fundraising volunteer India Evans organised the campaign and walked 62 miles of the Leeds Country Way as her own contribution and managed to raise nearly £1,400 for the sanctuary.

Andrew Pinder and his wife Samantha - who have eight horses together - understand the importance of equine rescue. Andrew said: “We read about India’s own 62-mile challenge and were blown away at her amazing effort and all those who have set about the challenge at Hope Pastures and their fundraising efforts.

"We were inspired to help, so we set them a challenge too.

"We offered to match by 50 per cent the total raised by the challenge, and also discussed how we could help in other ways in the future.

"We may have lived in the USA for 20 years, but as ex loiner’s, we give back to the community we came from when we can, previously helping Leeds United Ladies as main Shirt Sponsor of the Clubs Teams”.

So far over £5,000 has been raised, meaning that Pinder Property are set to donate a minimum of £2,500.

One young fundraiser, Hope (pictured), scooted two laps of Pudsey Park every day for 30 days and raised £300, Elenor (pictured) hacked 100 miles on her horse Elsie for the challenge, and Lyla (pictured) has challenged herself to do 30 sit ups for 30 days.

There are only two days left to sign up for the challenge, but the sanctuary is still urging people to do something quirky to raise some money for animals who have been abused and neglected.

Sanctuary Manager, Leonnie Martin, said: “Covid-19 has meant that we have needed to cancel all annual fundraising events, which has impacted greatly on our fundraising ability this year, so to see our supporters taking on weird and wonderful activities as part of the Big 30 Challenge has been amazing.

“The offer of match funding from Andrew and Samantha at Pinder Property is immense and we are unbelievably grateful.

"Their kindness and generosity is really appreciated and will greatly help to maximise the donations that we’ve received for the campaign.

"We hope that more people will get involved and do something quirky for Hope Pastures Big 30 as, although we’ve had some brilliant support for the Big 30 Challenge, we’re still a long way off making up for the loss of cancelled fundraising events."

Hope Pastures rescues, rehabilitates and re-homes horses, ponies and donkeys in need and donations help to prevent suffering and to improve and save the lives of equines both on and off site.

The sanctuary relies solely on donations and support to save and look after the animals.

More information about sign-ups and donations can be found here.