Community Group of the Year nominee – Alsager Animals in Need

Community Group of the Year nominee – Alsager Animals in Need

Three generations of one family are helping to ensure the continuing welfare of animals in the Alsager area.

Alsager Animals in Need has been in existence for 38 years, and the mother and daughter combination of 88-year-old coordinator Hilary Baxter and her 52-year-old daughter and assistant  coordinator Lisa Williams have put in decades of service between them, offering shelter and veterinary care for stray and abandoned cats and dogs in Alsager and the surrounding areas.

They have now been joined by Lisa’s 17-year-old son, Daniel, and are supported by a number of helpers, volunteers and fosterers to ensure this ‘small but caring’ charity continues to thrive and provide a much needed service for local animals.

Alsager Animals in Need makes every effort to trace owners but, if unsuccessful, aims to rehome through their network of local private boarding kennels and fostering shelters and houses.

All dogs and cats are given veterinary support and love and the charity puts on fundraising events, as well as giving people the opportunity to sponsor animals.

Hilary said: “We obviously need passion and love to do what we do. But we also need money too. That’s why fundraising is so important to us.

“What we do can take over our lives and so we are indebted to everyone that helps us. We get calls at any time of the day or night asking for help, so I think that it really is important that we really love what we are doing.”

After retiring from teaching, Hilary joined Alsager Animals in Need in 1990. As a youngster she had always wanted to be a vet but sees what she does now as ‘the next best thing’.

Alsager Animals in Need has been nominated in the Community Group of the Year category of the Your Heroes Awards 2025.