A COUPLE from Launceston have been recognised with a special award from the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) at the House of Lords, honouring their work to help and protect individual orangutan, as well as their efforts to conserve the species.

With a lifelong passion for orangutan, Nigel, (68), and Sara Hicks (55), from Launceston, decided to begin volunteering with orangutans in Borneo in 2009, after Nigel, a large animal vet for 25 years, sold his veterinary practice. Sara, a lay veterinary nurse as well as a glass artist, who has worked alongside Nigel for 20 years, and Nigel have since spent at least six months of every year volunteering at a variety of orangutan rescue and rehabilitation facilities in both Indonesian and Malaysian Borneo.

This involves a mix of veterinary treatment and general care for orphaned and sick orangutans which are brought to the centres, often suffering severe trauma from their experiences of deforestation, forest fires, human animal conflict and the pet trade.

After seeing the difficulties in sourcing vital veterinary equipment locally, Nigel and Sara began bringing out supplies in their luggage but with the need ever greater, in 2016 they set up their own small charity, OVAID (Orangutan Veterinary Aid) to raise awareness and fundraise to provide veterinary equipment to any of the Borneo orangutan rescue centres that need it. They supply everything from swabs to anaesthetic machines.

Philip Mansbridge, UK director of IFAW, said: “Nigel and Sara’s work to help sick and orphaned orangutans and their efforts to provide medical support to many more, as well as their conservation work with this threatened species is all admirable. We hope that their efforts will inspire the next generation of animal welfare campaigners and carers. They are very deserving winners of IFAW’s International Conservation Award.”

Sara said: “One of the main challenges we face is that we are really a ‘sticking plaster’ charity, dealing with the victims of the bigger ‘wound’, which is the palm oil industry and associated deforestation. But it is still really rewarding to see an animal which has come in with problems recover and be ready for release back into the wild. That is really the best we can hope for.”

Nigel, who lost most of one finger after a large and aggressive male orangutan didn’t want to take his medicine, added: “There are of course lots of challenges but it is still so rewarding too. Most rewarding for me is when we treat a young baby, which comes in very traumatised and we are able to save them. It is not just medical care they need; these animals really can give up the will to live because of what they have experienced and encouraging them to want to live by our care for them can be just as important as any veterinary treatment.”

More recently, the couple have used a legacy donation to set up a scholarship programme which enables newly-qualified vets from Indonesia to travel to the UK for four months of further veterinary training in specialist areas of work which they feel will help them treat issues they encounter with the orangutans. They can then pass this knowledge on to other vets at their centres.

The couple are now in Indonesia, delivering a £50,000 digital X-ray machine to one of the centres after successful fundraising. To support the couple’s work visit www.ovaid.org

Nigel and Sara received their award at IFAW’s prestigious Animal Action Awards event, hosted by Baroness Gale and presented by TV wildlife presenter Bill Oddie at the House of Lords on October 16.