Pat yourselves on the back our amazing UK team because you deserve every accolade going! The roadshow was a fun-filled, fund-raising, emotional roller-coaster from start to finish and we wouldn’t have missed it for the world. So fabulous to meet up again with old friends and supporters and to gain new advocates for programmes that we were proud to be able to speak about in person to audiences across the country.

My long-time friend and mentor, beautiful Virginia McKenna, founder of the Born Free Foundation, summed it up at the last event in London when she said that mountains were being moved - and it is solely because of the help and passion of people like you reading this message that the first steps in climbing what at first seemed insurmountable mountains have been achieved.

Now back in Chengdu catching up with the bears, these past three weeks have sped past. Twelve presentations in just over two weeks with Dave, Nicky, Gill, Lara and Fiona working their socks off to make them such a success. Fabulous auction prizes with some bids leaving us speechless and wondering if the hammer would ever come down. Celebrities at many events and the most amazing vegetarian and vegan food at Chinese restaurants where almost all the events were staged.

Christie Yang, our China Relations Director, and I left the UK last week tired, but very happy indeed and looking forward to the next roadshow there!