From small beginning WRAS has grown to what it is today thanks not just to Trevor but all the volunteers and supporters who have kept WRAS alive and pushing forward. Trevor Weeks MBE is the founder of East Sussex WRAS. His love of animals and wildlife began in 1985 when he was just 13 years old undertaking wildlife rescue and conservation work.
The first ten years Trevor spent most of his time helping a variety of organisations like the Conservation Volunteers, local Badger Group, Amphibian and Reptile Group, and various individuals who ran small bird and wildlife hospitals from their homes. Trevor started volunteering with Meta Mann who ran a bird hospital from her home in Seaford and collecting oiled covered seabird like Guillemots and Razorbills and delivering them to her as well as helping to wash and clean them. Once Trevor could drive and had his own car he started doing more rescue work and helped the Fox Project and Swan Sanctuary.
“It was my mum which got me interested in animals and nature, we always had one animal or another at home, which she always said were the responsibility of my brother and I to look after and of course she would always be the one who ended up looking after them. They included chicken, terrapins, rabbits, guinea pigs, fish, cats and dogs.” Said Trevor. Sadly, in 1993 Trevor lost his mum to cancer which had a big impact on his life which he struggled to deal with, but his voluntary work helped pull him through.
In 1996 Trevor attended the Sea Empress Oil Spill in Millford Haven in Wales working with Redbrook Wildlife Rescue, British Divers Marine Life Rescue and Greenpeace. East Sussex Wildlife Rescue was formed later that year after Trevor ran up a vets bill of over £1000 and was struggling to pay off the fees. Vet Robin Hooper from Downwood Vets in Horam, gave Trevor a challenge to set up his work as a voluntary group and get a committee and fundraising going, and in return Robin offered to cut Trevor’s bill in half. Trevor rose to the challenge and within 6 months East Sussex Wildlife Rescue was born.
In between working as a computer technician, Trevor continued to put a lot of his spare time into undertaking wildlife rescue work and trying to develop the organisation into a charity. He has also gone on to broaden his experience by working for International Animal Rescue in Uckfield and then moved over to their sister charity British Divers Marine Life Rescue where he became their National Co-ordinator helping to support volunteers around the country undertake whale, dolphin and seal rescues. Including helping by going to Cumbria for a two-week operation to save a dolphin trapped in a harbour and helping to training people in Canada in how to rescue marine life.
In 2005 WRAS was formed as a registered charitable company. In 2010, with the support International Animal Rescue, WRAS opened the doors to its current Casualty Care Centre at Whitesmith on the A22 between Hailsham, Uckfield and Lewes. The centre is now capable of holding up to 400 casualties at a time. In addition to this the charity has four veterinary ambulances and over 170 volunteers who work hard to keep the charity going.
The charity has grown to become an award winning charity and in 2010 the charity received an IFAW Animal Action Award at the House of Lords, in 2012 Trevor was named in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List receiving the MBE for services to animal welfare, later that year he received the BBC Sussex & Surrey Community Heroes Award for Animal Welfare, and in 2013 the charity won the Local Animal Charity of the Year in the ITV1 British Animal Honours. Trevor’s work has also been recognised by both the Eastbourne Herald and Gazette in 2005 when he won a Volunteer Award and in 2010 received an award from local radio station Sovereign FM. More recently East Sussex WRAS has been recognised by Wealden MP Nus Ghani in 2022 and received a Hailsham Mayor's Award in 2024.
WRAS’s workload has always been much higher than it can cope with but we want to change that and help even more casualties than ever before! Millions of wildlife casualties are euthanized at vets up and down the country due to the lack of facilities for these casualties to go to, but in East Sussex they have WRAS and we are saving thousands of wildlife casualties as a result of the public support we receive.
WRAS now receives about 20,000 calls a year fir help and advice continues to increase every year. These calls result in 5-6000 casualties being helped annually now. WRAS is ever expanding its facilities to take in a help thousands of casualties every year. During peak time WRAS can receive over 120 calls a day.
WRAS has now reach its limits at its current site and are actively looking for a new site and funding to develop a new hospital from which it can expand and develop new and additional facilities.
