A Vegan is Born!

 We were so excited today to get an email from one of our good friends who has decided to become vegan! She is a very caring person, having been involved professionally in caring for animals and humans, she rescues animals whenever she finds one that needs help, and she's been vegetarian for many years now. When we met her just over five years ago, and we told her that we were vegan she told us that she was vegetarian, and was interested in the idea of being vegan but wasn't sure that it would fit into her daily life that well as she was on the road a lot.

This is beautiful Fergus!!

   Our friend became a supporter of Hillside Animal Sanctuary through us (I think we sent her a card we bought from them), and she was almost as excited as us when our family headed a campaign to save Fergus, a Highland Bull, from imminent slaughter two years ago, and he went to live at Hillside Animal Sanctuary (hillside.org.uk) where we visit him on open days- last time we went we took him some purple carrots that we grew in our garden! Our friend had heard all about Hillside and really wanted to go- and on Sunday she made it to Hillside at last!
   She emailed us in the evening after she got back from her visit, saying that her visit had been amazing, surpassing her expectations, and that she had especially loved the cows and the pigs (and Fergus, of course!), and that she was now thinking of becoming vegan.

  Today she emailed saying that she'd thrown her Flora margarine in the bin and bought some vegan Pure margarine and was now vegan! We've been really impressed with the way Kylie and Claire from animal rights campaigning charity Viva support new vegans on Twitter, and we are determined to be our friend's vegan support team- we are seeing her this week and she has asked for lots of tips about recipe books, vegan substitions etc. She said that she'd had a walk around the supermarket and was encouraged to see lots of things marked Vegan, and of course, she can buy lots of lovely snacks, chocolate, egg replacer and even (gasp!) marshmallows,  from VegaNation, our lovely 100% vegan shop (www.veganation.co.uk ), from which we are happy to give support and advice to new vegans!
   We are so proud of our friend and happy that the world now has one more much needed vegan!