Copyright scotsman
A couple have transformed their home into a hospital and haven - for over 500 hedgehogs. Andy Longhurst, 59, and wife Sharon, 50, have dedicated their lives - and home - to care for orphaned, sick and injured hedgehogs. They look after them until they are fit to be released back into the wild. They initially used their upstairs room in their house, where they were allowed to care for up to seven hedgehogs without a licence in Scotland. But they "quickly realised the need to expand their operations", so had to convert their garage not long after. Following two years of helping more hedgehogs, and fundraising their own money, the pair also installed an outbuilding in their garden. The pair, who have been married 29 years, now have a fully fledged hedgehog hospital - and have had over 586 hedgehogs through their doors since starting their epic rescue in March 2023. Sharon said: "Hedgehogs were listed as near threatened on the IUCN Red List in 2024 as they have declined between 30-75 per cent in rural areas since the year 2000. "With hedgehogs needing vital help, we knew we had to do something - and what better than turn our home into a safe space for hedgehogs in need?" Andy and Sharon care for up to 40 hedgehogs at any one time and have a team of volunteers in everyday - to help with cleaning, weighing and checking the hedgehogs on a daily basis. They even have a 'hogambulance' team on WhatsApp - where they can put a call out to see if someone would collect the injured hedgehog and bring it to them. Part of their mission is also to educate the public on how to create a safe space in their own garden. When discussing what inspired them to set up their hedgehog rescue, Andy said: "We were out in the car one day in 2022 and saw a hedgehog collapsed on a grass verge. We contacted the SSPCA and they weren’t able to collect so we drove the hedgehog all the way to the SSPCA Wildlife Centre - which was a 50 mile round trip. "Two weeks later the same thing happened again. We found a hedgehog needing help, this time with flystrike. Sharon knew it had to be removed otherwise the flystrike would hatch into maggots and then the hedgehog would have endured a slow and painful death. But again SSPCA weren’t available so we took it over to Alloa once again. "We then decided that we could set up our own rescue - as members of the public wouldn’t make the 50 mile round trip like we had done if they had found a hedgehog. We learnt that there was a guy up in Wormit near St Andrews that had been doing hedgehog rescue for 25 plus years and was looking for someone to take it over due to ill health. We went and had a chat with Sandy Boyd and he gave us valuable information and gave us some equipment to get us started." Andy and Sharon then started their hedgehog haven upstairs in the spare room. However, the pair said it "quickly became evident" that the space was "insufficient to handle the increasing number of hedgehogs in need". Andy said: "We then transitioned the rescue operations into our converted garage, which had previously served as a playroom for our children and later as a storage room. This move provided the much-needed room to accommodate the growing number of hedgehogs requiring care." However, even this space became too small to care for the hedgehogs, so Andy and Sharon put together lots of fundraising and then installed an outbuilding in the garden - which is the hedgehog rescue as we see it today. Andy said: "Fast forward two years and we needed to expand further - so had an outbuilding put up down the bottom of the garden and due to the fantastic community support of Burntisland and surrounding areas we were able to proceed and have the outbuilding built far quicker than we had originally anticipated. The new rescue centre not only enhanced our capacity to help but also symbolised a new chapter in our commitment to wildlife conservation." Their hospital and care covers Edinburgh, the Lothians and Fife, and the furthest so far they have had hedgehogs come in from is Berwick, Falkirk and beyond. The pair were awarded the BBC Make A Difference Award Highly Commended in the Animal Category and recently featured on Channel 5 News as Heroes of The Week. Last year, they also won the Animal Star 'Animal All Star' award out of the whole of the UK, and received a mention in Parliament. Andy and Sharon are finalists for the Animal Star Awards in Volunteer of the Year category this month down in Leeds. You can support Andy and Sharon’s work here.
