The Background

The fundraising project began in 1999 when the boys' first book was published. At that stage it was very simple. Collect enough sponsorship to cover the printing costs for 1,000 books, sell them locally for £1 a copy and give PDSA £1,000. End of project.

That it has grown so much is a tribute to the help and support we have. To read about the progress of the project from 1999 to date in full, go to the Diary of a Diary

Originally the books were only available from local bookshops and by mailorder. Thanks to a lot of local publicity they sold extremely well. Ann is now concentrating on selling copies of the books and other items via the online shop. This is because we have a far wider customer base online and there was inevitably a limit to the amount of local publicity Ann was able to obtain, so local sales reached saturation point some time ago. (She'd like her spare bedroom back sometime too. It's currently known as "The Warehouse".)

Once we started to increase the range of items we sold, it also increased production costs. Ann couldn't face the idea of collecting more sponsorship money to reprint the first book, publish the second book and print the cards, so she "speculated to accumulate" and used some of the profits. This has been well worth while as we have already been able to give PDSA far more than the original £1,000 we anticipated.

In May 2002, Ann (on behalf of Spock and Dracs), presented the Director General of PDSA, Marilyn Rydström, with a cheque for £1,000.

In early 2004, another presentation took place at PDSA's Newcastle PetAid Hospital when a further £1,000 was handed over. The plaque below is in the Hospital's reception area. Click here for details, and a photo tour of the Newcastle Hospital.

We take great pride in providing a very professional service. Behind the scenes however, everything is done on a shoestring to ensure the maximum amount of money goes into the funds.. The only money that is taken out of the project is for materials and postage costs. Ann keeps meticulous books which detail all the income and outgoings.

Ann and all of the volunteers who have helped take nothing, not even their expenses.
(The boys are hard taskmasters!)

What we've achieved

PDSA opened a new PetAid Hospital in Newcastle in July 1999. Half the money for the building costs was given by the Ann Coleman Trust after whom the hospital has been named. The other half came from PDSA reserves. PDSA broke down the building costs of the hospital and put a value on each of the components. For example, consulting rooms cost £10,000 each, an operating theatre £15,000. Of most interest to this project was the Feline Ward which cost £6,000.

The Catsup Fundraising Project has now raised over the £3,000 needed for the cost of building the Feline Ward to be attributed to Siamese Authors Spock and Dracs

In addition, paying back into the reserves, the building cost of the Feline Ward at the Newcastle Hospital, has released money that can be used in other Hospitals in other parts of the UK. So where ever you live in the UK, supporting our project could help PDSA facilities in your area.

How you can help

Please take a look at our online shop and order some of our items. We accept payment via our secure server or via Paypal.

If you have a shop, or work anywhere where it would be possible to sell our items, please consider stocking our books and cards. Email Ann for wholesale rates.

If you work for another charity, please consider buying our books and cards to sell for your own fundraising efforts. Again, Email Ann for wholesale rates. (She loves it when 2 charities benefit from the boys work.)

The boys with some of their goods and some items featured in the Cottage Industry page. This picture along with an article, appeared in a book published in December 2001 to celebrate volunteering in North Tyneside.