What a weekend - I had been invited to speak at the smartest and poshest event ever ... a fundraising ball for the Shepreth Wildlife and Conservation Charity - taking place in Kings College, Cambridge. This is a place that makes Hogwarts seem like an experiment in Brutalist architecture!

The SWCC runs a hedgehog hospital beside the associated wildlife park just outside Cambridge - that is the reason they approached me back in 2013 to become a Patron. I was attracted to their ethos - very much driven by science - and keen to share their experience.

Rebecca Willers is the Director of the park, founder of the Charity and one of the most impressive human dynamos I have ever met.

The ball was to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the hedgehog hospital opening - and also to raise money. Everyone is feeling the pressure of the series of unfortunate political and economic decisions that have been taken over the last 12 years - and that includes the hospital - energy prices in particular have a massive impact. And the fact that they have relied upon the generosity of supporters to donate food - and there is just less spare in our weekly budgets.

This was not the only fund raising event - in fact it was one of ten that Rebecca has set herself. Most of the others have been terrifying and exhausting just to read about ... massively long walks up and down mountains, running, kayaking ... she has lost toenails along the way! But the most utterly draining was getting this ball to happen.

The hedgehogs that come into the hospital because they are injured, sick or just too small. My father-in-law lives not too far away and has taken youngsters to them - he has regular hedgehog visitors in his garden and frequently updates me with their activities thanks to his trail camera ... then one day he found three very young hedgehogs out in the day. As I am sure you know this is an absolute alarm sign ... he called me and I got him to search for any others that might be hiding in the borders before taking them to the hospital.

The sad, but very important, end of this story came a few days later when a neighbour of his mentioned that he had found a dead hedgehog - he had been clearing out a down pipe and had removed the protective grid - forgetting to return it, and into that hole fell those youngsters' mum. So please - if you are doing a big clear up of fallen leaves and take off even small drain covers - PLEASE - make sure you put them back in place.

So - the hospital is a good place. And I was willing to do my bit to help them raise money. That involved 'fancy dress' - normally when I go to a fancy dress party I go as a hobbit as that requires very little work! But for this I needed black tie! And I had to prepare a 10 minute talk that would be entertaining and useful ... which, despite having done quite a bit of this sort of thing, I still find really rather stressful ... so much so that I had barely a sip of wine with the first two courses ... and then my moment ... I had fun - got the 205 people there to do silly things and laugh - while I was sneakily filling their heads with important hedgehog facts!

Other speakers included Darren Bett the weather man, talking about climate change and the impact on wildlife. Colin Bell - at 101 and a veteran of the RAF in WW2 talked about never giving up. And there was also a video from Chris Packham - supporting the work of the charity. Then DJ Spoony span the discs as the beautiful hall became very noisy!

I got to bed after 1am - Rebecca was up until 5am ... but it was worth it - they managed to raise £20k from the auctions and raffle! Oh - and this would never had happened without the amazing small team - Liz and Sally - who worked tirelessly with Rebecca, arm twisting sponsors - and even getting Professor Michael Proctor, the Provost of Kings College, to grant permission for this amazing event to take place in his hallowed hall!

If you are looking for a way to help hedgehogs - track down your local rescue - give them a call, see if they have anything they need ... sometimes this can be as simple as stacks of newspaper! Maybe they need someone to act as an occasional ambulance? 

And then treat yourself to a hedgehog calendar! Still at the bargain price of £8.50 including delivery if bought over the phone at the British Hedgehog Preservation Society!