In loving memory of Marion the founder of Friend Farm Animal Sanctuary

Marion’s Story

Marion was born in New Cross, South London in 1958 and moved to Kent as a very young girl where she spent the remainder of her days. The house she lived in backed onto a beautiful fruit orchard, which in years to come became our sanctuary. 

Marion always loved animals, she wanted to stop consuming animal products from a very early age but her parents who’d lived through the scarcity and rations of war, believed this was a dangerous thing to do, so like many young vegan souls she wasn’t allowed. She finally became vegetarian as a young woman in her mid twenties.

Marion loved animals and began by breeding and riding horses, giving her daughter and the local kids of the village a safe place to ride and play. It was when her daughter had grown that Marion became more aware of the ethics of vegan living and realised that horse breeding was not something she wanted to continue to support.

According to her husband and FRIEND’s current owner Mark, Marion was a very talented and driven person, she would always take on new tasks, master them then move on to something else, for example she decided to learn martial arts and became a black belt in karate and teacher to the village children even today Mark still get’s approached by adults today telling him how Marion had taught them about discipline and control. Marion also became a prolific artist, a singer, a sailor, a vegan chef, a high skilled driver, a self-taught animal medic, and the list goes on…

After a while Marion's love of animals became the focal point of her life, and she turned 100% of her determination and inner strength to advocating and fighting for animal rights. She used to visit a ‘livestock’ market in Sevenoaks to check on the welfare of the animals being bought and sold. It was at this time she found a tiny disabled lamb in a pen who was very unwell and after negotiating with the farmer Marion was able to buy the lamb for a pound, she bought him home and named him Tim. Marion was so enamoured by this tiny baby she invested all her time and energy into looking after him, Tim was the first little resident rescue, and this was the beginning of FRIEND Farm Animal Sanctuary.

Marion was totally amazed at how clever this little boy was, she would invite the neighbours over to show him off, he would recognise his name, recognise her face, come to her when she mentioned food, and follow her everywhere. Marion really believed she had the most intelligent sheep in the world until she rescued a second lamb from the same market and was totally amazed to discover that she now had the second most intelligent sheep in the world, the penny dropped and she realised that of course ALL farmed animals are clever we have just been indoctrinated to think they are not, this was a very powerful realisation for her and motivated her to dedicate the rest of her life to vegan outreach, animal rescue, activism and running an animal sanctuary.

Mark describes Marion as an animal whisperer, he tells the story of when a very young baby bat came to the sanctuary:

‘She was the size of a thumbnail, Marion tried to feed her milk from a syringe but she wouldn’t take it, so after a think Marion asked me to go out side and get a chicken feather which I did. She put a small amount of milk on top of the feather, which ran down to form a tiny globule at the bottom, which the baby could take. To say I was shocked was bit of an understatement but not as much as when Marion then passed me the bat so she could go out to the kitchen, the little bat had a complete sonic hissy fit! She was screaming so loudly I really did not know what to do but the second Marion took the bat back she became calm and quiet again! This really was the essence of Marion, a true Earth mother to the animal kingdom and her capacity to rehabilitate the abused and very young was a joy for me to watch. She always had a menagerie of dogs, cats, pigs, sheep, geese following her around at her feet, baby animals down her top, and I swear I thought if I would upset her a swarm of angry bees would fly from her hair to sting me’

Marion sadly passed away after a long term illness January 11th 2016 but she will never be forgotten for her legacy will be continued by FRIEND Farm Animal Sanctuary, she was buried here and we have a wonderful memorial garden for her which we hope people will visit.