Animals Asia is saddened by the tragic loss of Meghan Ambrozevich-Blair, a compassionate young veterinary nursing student and Animals Asia supporter who dedicated her life to helping animals.

Twenty six year old Meghan was killed in a car accident as she drove to work, the day after her final veterinary nursing examination at Edinburgh Napier University.

She was the beloved daughter of Kevin and Lauren, loving sister of Jared and Ethan and dearly loved fiancé of Scot. Our thoughts are with her family at this difficult time.

As a charity committed to improving the welfare of animals, Animals Asia’s approach resonated with Meghan’s own commitment to improving welfare globally through engagement and education, and so was selected by Meghan’s friends and work colleagues to memorialise Meghan’s compassion, commitment and enthusiasm for improving animal welfare around the world.

Meghan’s life was short, but full of compassion; a committed vegan, she strove to improve the lives of all animals around her, from picking up earthworms after the rain, to gaining medals for being the best HNC and HND Animal care student at Barony College, Dumfries.

Meghan had also abseiled from Edinburgh’s Forth rail bridge to raise money for the Scottish SPCA in 2013, and had recently signed up as a volunteer with Fostering Compassion, a local charity committed to improving the empathy of children in kinship care, towards animals.

In 2015, Meghan signed up for a project with Animals Asia’s ex-Veterinary Director Heather Bacon and Veterinary Nurse Hayley Walters, who now work at the Jeanne Marchig International Centre for Animal Welfare Education at the University of Edinburgh. The project involved collaborating with the Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (KVASU) in India, to showcase the value of compassionate and well-trained veterinary nurses, encouraging KVASU to start their own veterinary nursing training programme, and improving the welfare of dogs and cats within the veterinary clinics.

On returning to the UK, Meghan wrote:

“At the moment there are no recognised veterinary nurses in India and we went over there to show them the amazing work we can do! Veterinary nurses are often the veterinary surgeon's right hand, we are friends to our clients and guardian angels to our patients. Although working in India proved to be a huge emotional roller-coaster, luckily the highs were just as intense as the lows. And our hopes came true earlier this week when it was announced that Kerala University have decided they definitely would like to introduce a veterinary nursing program and want to educate and train the very first veterinary nurses in India! So here’s to the future development of Indian Veterinary nurses and the long-term improvement of animal care and welfare India-wide!”.

It was through this project, that Meghan also became aware of the work of Animals Asia.

To date the response to the request for donations to Animals Asia in Meghan’s memory has been deeply humbling and is a fitting tribute to Meghan’s short, but hugely compassionate life. All donations will be used to fund Animals Asia’s work to end bear bile farming, stop the cat and dog meat trades and improve the welfare of animals across Asia.

BACK