Soap star Gemma Atkinson donates £37,500 to Bleakholt Animal Sanctuary

Gemma Atkinson

Emmerdale actress Gemma Atkinson has donated £37,500 to Bleakholt Animal Sanctuary after starring on a television game show.

Gemma featured on an episode of ITV game show The Chase with a celebrity panel and earned £27,500. The total was then topped up with a further £10,000 by pet insurance firm Animal Friends.

Gemma decided to donate the money to the sanctuary, located in Edenfield, after visiting regularly as a child growing up in Bury.

The actress managed to secure the win for her and the celebrity team after answering a question about boy band Five correctly. Gemma was over the moon to win with the team, as she felt she had done badly in her one-to-one questions.

She said: “To be honest I felt I had let everyone down as when you are on the spot in front of a live audience with Bradley Walsh in front of you, it is nerve-racking.

“Then it came to the last question and for the four of us to win £110,000 between us, they asked us a question about a boy band. I knew it was Five and everyone else was clueless but because I hadn’t been too good in the rest of the competition, they didn’t believe me. Anyhow they went for it, I redeemed myself and we won the jackpot.”

The team then walked away with £110,000 between them.

Following the win, Gemma, an animal lover who owns dogs Ollie and Norman, used her contacts with Animal Friends to boost the total for the Sanctuary even further.

Bleakholt Animal Sanctuary currently cares for around 90 abandoned dogs, up to 200 cats, kittens and rabbits – which they try to re-home. Goats, donkeys and pigs that the sanctuary looks after go to the sanctuary to live out their lives.

On a visit to the Sanctuary, Gemma said: “I just find it so sad, I could re-home them all. Animals don’t have a voice – we are their voice – and I just want to help. You can look into a dogs eyes and see whether they are sad or happy straight away.

“They need people to speak up for them and I just want to do my bit. You hear a lot about big charities but I wanted to give to a less well-known charity and one which is local and personal to me.”

The Sanctuary has just built a new puppy unit, which is due to open soon, but now, thanks to Gemma, they can put plans into practice on other projects.

Bleakholt Operations Manager Stuart Murray said: “We are about three R’s – Reception, Rehabilitation and Rehoming. This next year we want to concentrate on rehabilitation. We want to build an all-weather surface for the horses which is one project and we want to help the dogs become more sociable so they can be re-homed more easily - so we want a new agility area with runs where we can work with them.

“We also want to knock down our really old kennels and build new ones which is our big fundraising project for next year. Gemma’s money will be massive in helping us modernise our facilities.”

Bleakholt Animal Sanctuary solely relies on voluntary contributions.