Charities

By Lord Ashcroft

First published in the Mail on Sunday on 27 October 2019.

Looking regal and majestic, he lay on a wooden platform with his proud head and golden mane held high. He appeared to be back to his rightful position as the “king of the jungle”.

It was a poignant and emotional moment for me as: the first time that I had ever set eyes on Simba. Six months earlier, my investigative team had rescued him from certain death from a hunting area on the edge of the Kalahari desert, South Africa.

Back in April, maltreated, malnourished, drugged and abused, he was destined to become someone’s trophy in a “canned hunt”: one in which the lion is shot in a severely-enclosed space with no chance of escape.

Read more …

By Lord Ashcroft

In December last year, I travelled to a secret location just outside South Africa’s famous Kruger National Park to report on a unique project.

The location was, and still is, secret because it is where dozens of young rhinos, some only weeks or months old, are brought when they are found abandoned and orphaned: in almost all cases their mothers have been brutally shot and dehorned, sometimes while they are still alive, by poachers.

So if the evil poachers knew the location of the Care for Wild Rhino Sanctuary, they could go there in search of easy pickings: some of the older rhinos have well-established – and therefore valuable – horns. (more…)

By Lord Ashcroft

Article in Mail on Sunday – 05 May 2019

• Big cat Simba was dramatically rescued from the ranch where he was being held
• The lion’s life had been saved by undercover investigators led by Lord Ashcroft
• He was saved just hours before another hunter was due to arrive to kill him

With his glorious golden mane, magnificent Simba cautiously surveys his new kingdom as he stalks through dense bushes. (more…)

By Lord Ashcroft

Lord Ashcroft KCMG PC has given his backing to today’s launch of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s (CWGC’s) “Voices of Liberation” project to mark the 75^th anniversary of key events in the Second World War.

As part of the new project, Lord Ashcroft and others were interviewed about their thoughts and experiences on liberation in relation to 1944 and other significant Second World War events. These interviews will form part of an important archive that the CWGC will keep and maintain. (more…)

By Lord Ashcroft

First published in the Telegraph Magazine on Saturday, 26 January 2019.

(more…)

By Lord Ashcroft

First published in the Daily Mail on Monday, 05 February 2018.

Today is a landmark occasion for the people of Scotland as their Government launches a national campaign against a “silent killer”: sepsis.

I applaud the Scottish Government’s decision to begin raising awareness of the dangers of sepsis because it will undoubtedly save hundreds of lives in the future.

Furthermore, I congratulate those, particularly the Scottish Daily Mail, who lobbied so passionately and effectively against people who claimed that a new campaign was unnecessary. (more…)

By Lord Ashcroft

First published in the Daily Mail Scotland on 13 September 2017

TWO years ago sepsis came within a whisker of claiming my life. It resulted in me spending 19 days in intensive care and throughout that time it was unclear whether I would live or die.

As an international businessman, I travel widely (I have visited more than 150 countries to date) and I consider myself to be wellread (quite apart from the many books I have devoured, I have written 13 of my own). (more…)

By lordashcroft.com

Lord Ashcroft and The UK Sepsis Trust are today launching a £500,000 fund-raising campaign to raise money for the charity.

Their aim is to save lives by making more people aware of the dangers of sepsis and also its symptoms. For every £1 that is donated by others, Lord Ashcroft will match this with an identical donation of his own up to £250,000. This means that the fund-raising target for the campaign #Ashcroft4SepsisUnited is £500,000. (more…)

By Lord Ashcroft

A year and a half ago sepsis almost claimed my life. During my 19 days in intensive care, it was repeatedly touch and go whether I lived or died.

When I was taken ill in September 2015, I was one of the vast majority of people who is blissfully unaware both of the symptoms of sepsis or quite how many lives it claims every year.

My road to a full recovery was a long and difficult one after various health complications, but I am glad to say that I eventually made it to my own 70^th birthday party in March last year and I have managed to clock up another birthday since then. (more…)

By Lord Ashcroft

Speech made by Lord Ashcroft on 13 October 2016 at the Sepsis Unplugged Conference in Brighton.

Ladies and gentlemen, I can’t begin to tell you how delighted I am to be here. And when I say “here”, I don’t just mean at the Hilton Brighton Metropole. I mean “here” more generally, as in still “here” on Planet Earth.

For, just over a year ago, I fell victim to sepsis, the condition that I now know – but did not know then – that claims an estimated 44,000 lives in the UK every year.

I have been asked to share my experiences with you and I am going to do just that – to provide you with a detailed, if somewhat traumatic, account of a desperately unhappy episode that came so close to claiming my life. (more…)