Our Own 'Lady Diana' visits Buckingham Palace
For NDAA ‘animal angel’ Diana Lewis, a typical day consists of a 17-hour animal welfare marathon as she criss-crosses North Devon in our animal ambulance. Recently, however, our own ‘Lady Diana’ had to take a day off to accept an irresistible and well-deserved invitation to a Royal Garden Party at Buckingham Palace…
As the founder of the North Devon Animal Ambulance Diana is a regular spokesperson for the charity. Given her role in the NDAA and her unceasing hard work for the county’s domestic and wild animals, the Royal invitation to Diana and her husband Mick couldn’t have gone to more worthy recipients.
Even so, in a subsequent media interview, Diana (seen above with husband Mick just before leaving home) admitted to initially feeling a bit guilty about leaving her animal welfare work behind for a day – before conceding that ‘it was an absolutely wonderful day.’
Typical of Diana’s commitment to the charity and its hard working volunteers (all the NDAA’s workers are unpaid), she stressed that her attendance was as the proud representative of everyone who makes the NDAA such a special organisation. As well as enjoying a delicious afternoon tea (worlds away from her usual sandwich and bottle of water in a North Devon lay-by), Diana and Mick got a privileged look around Buckingham Palace and its stunning grounds – and even chatted with the Duke of Edinburgh and Prince Edward!
‘And of course we saw the Queen,’ explained Diana, ‘and she has such an amazing smile. It makes you feel incredibly important, even when you are not.’ All too soon, the day, spent largely in the company of smartly uniformed service personnel just back from duty in Afghanistan and Iraq, was over and the couple caught the train back to the reality of life in North Devon.
‘It was a wonderful experience,’ said Diana after the event; we even had glorious weather which made a perfect day. I only wish that all our volunteers could have been there too.’
