Over the festive period, we would like to shine a light on the lesser known charities in the Isle of Man.

There are a few large charities in the island who often get a mention in our pages.

While these organisations undoubtedly do great work and should be celebrated - we wanted to reach out to those charities who people may not know.

After the last couple of years of trying to keep afloat during a global pandemic, we’re sure local charities would love some extra support.

We will be featuring charities across all three of our publications.

Our first charity is the Manx Hedgehog Conservation Society (Charity 1183).

We spoke to the charity’s founder, Sandy Huyton, to find out more about their work.

Why / When did you form?

The charity was founded in 2015, and the support from our community continues to be amazing.

A passion for protecting orphaned, sick or injured hedgehogs on the Isle of Man inspired me to register as a charity.

What has been your biggest achievement or proudest moment since forming?

Our biggest achievement was in 2019, when the charity won the UNESCO Biosphere award Isle of Man for ’education and awareness’ and the charity was a finalist in the Isle of Man Newspapers Awards for Excellence awards the same year - in the ’Protecting our Environment’ category.

This recognition connected the public to the importance of our environmental aims, and the importance of balancing our fragile ecosystem naturally.

In 2018, we launched with all our schools the crisp packet recycling scheme, of which over one year 24,000 pieces of non biodegradable pieces of plastic were collected by the charity!

This educational exercise was to connect our island with the dangers of plastic waste to our wildlife, as hedgehogs become trapped inside.

We then worked with Cronk y Berry school and upcycled plastic into plastic bottles (eco bricks) and launched the eco brick throne chair at the Royal Agricultural Show.

Members of the public also contributed eco bricks for the awareness scheme, [they showed] amazing support!

What is your biggest ambition / goal for the future?

The goal is to one day have a ’Hedgehog rehabilitation / visitors centre’ and hopefully a hedgehog gift shop to support funding.

That is the dream and is very necessary.

How can people get involved/where can they donate?

Members of the public can contact the charity to support fundraising via email - [email protected] - call 413921 or send a PM to our FB page.

l If you would like to see your charity featured, please email: [email protected]