Charity boss in it for the long run

The former Settle High School pupil has already raised £30,000 for the PDSA, and is now well on the way to hitting her target of an extra £20,000 this year after taking part in the London Marathon at the weekend.

“I want to raise £20,120 this year to tie in with the date,” says Jan who is Director General of the PDSA.

Jan, originally from Giggleswick, says: “Working for PDSA I see every day the vital work the charity does treating sick and injured pets across the whole of the country.

“And with more households facing economic hardship in these difficult times, our task is becoming even more challenging. That’s why I decided to raise much needed funds by taking on this iconic marathon once again.”

Last year PDSA vets delivered in excess of 2.4 million free treatments to over 400,000 sick and injured pets through its network of 50 PetAid hospitals and branches throughout the UK. This represents an increase in the charity’s workload of nearly 50 per cent in the last five years.

“It now costs more than £60m every year to fund PDSA’s PetAid services, all of which comes through voluntary donations. I hope that by leading by example other people will be inspired to raise money for this very important charity.”

Although Jan has always been a dog-lover, she has her own rescued Labradoodle, Bobby, she never set out to have a career with animals.

In fact until she landed a job at the PDSA in 2001 she had almost exclusively worked in the food and drink industry. A biochemist with an MSc in microbiology, Jan worked for Allied Breweries. During her time there she even qualified as a brewer.

She has also worked for Heinz – looking after their ketchup and baked bean manufacturing business.

“It was the time of the 1p tin of beans so it was a challenging time to be in the business.”

Having spent some time in Shropshire, Jan was keen to move back down there and so when the job of director of veterinary services at the PDSA came up she applied for it, despite having no experience with animals.

“I explained to them that all my skills were transferable and they were quite forward thinking. They created the role of development director for me, which I took in October 2001.”

Jan worked closely with the retiring director of veterinary services and when he retired she was given the post despite being the first person to hold the job who wasn’t a vet.

And in 2008 Jan was made Director General. During her 11 years at the charity she has seen the amount of money it spends on veterinary services grow from £5m to £60m.

“It was fantastic to have grown with the organisation which last year received income of £95m. Not a penny of that comes from government, all of it comes from fund-raising, or shops and legacies.”

But it has not been without its challenges.

“Within weeks of me taking over the whole world went into financial melt down. All charities have faced difficulties and one of my main areas of experience is keeping costs down and getting value for money.”

But as funding was squeezed by the recession, so demand for the PDSA’s services increased.

Jan sees the future in prevention and education.

PDSA provides vets for pets

The People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals was founded in 1917 by Maria Dickins. Today the PDSA is the UK’s leading veterinary charity, providing free veterinary care for the sick and injured pets of people in need.

For more information about PDSA in 2013 visit www.pdsa.org.uk or call 01952 204791.

To donate towards Jan’s marathon effort go to http://uk.virginmoney giving.com/ JanMcLoughlin1