Mrs Dorothy Walsh – a Bleakholt Treasure

We wanted to honour the dedication, hard work, support and loyalty of Dorothy Walsh by naming our new kennel block after her and her Family. Many of you will know Dorothy as she has been involved with Bleakholt for well over 40 years and has raised a lot of funding for us.

The list of her contributions to our Sanctuary goes on and on. She ran the old Accrington and Blackburn Charity Shops and also our Café for many years as a Volunteer, she was a Home Visitor, organised and ran stalls on Open Days, was a Trustee for a long time during which time she also chaired the Board for a while and has adopted several Bleakholt dogs! Her late husband Joe was also a Trustee and volunteered to do a lot of the gardening work at the Sanctuary. Later, Dorothy also helped out with the gardening, particularly around the Cafe area.

Dorothy also loves our Equines and has had many favourites on the Stables over the years. Oh – and Dorothy is a very keen football fan (‘don’t ring me when there’s a match on!’), supporting her favourite Blackburn Rovers avidly.

Although Dorothy stepped down as a Trustee at the end of last year, she agreed to become a Bleakholt Ambassador and is pictured below right accepting our Grant from Support Adoption for Pets in September last year.

The top picture was taken at the official opening of the block on 28th April 2019 by our President Gemma Atkinson with Gorka Marquez and Trustees Denise Corrigan (left) and Jackie Cook.

Bleakholt certainly owes Dorothy a huge debt of gratitude and we simply cannot thank her enough for all she has done for Bleakholt over the years