Vet students strip off for charity calendar

More than 100 students at the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, Easter Bush, have been getting naked to raise funds for pets in need.
Members of the Edinburgh University Exmoor Pony Trekking Society with their ponies, pictured in the Pentland Hills.Members of the Edinburgh University Exmoor Pony Trekking Society with their ponies, pictured in the Pentland Hills.
Members of the Edinburgh University Exmoor Pony Trekking Society with their ponies, pictured in the Pentland Hills.

The When Vets Undress project has seen students strip off for a calendar to raise money for All4Paws, a charity initiated and run by vet students, offering free veterinary care to the pets of people who are homeless or vulnerably housed, as the students believe all four-legged friends deserve access to basic health care.

Student Gavin Gan has been steering the project and revealed how it came about.

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He said: “Every year we try to create a fundraising project to raise funds for our vets’ charity. This year we were brainstorming for something that can get as many students involved as possible.

“Creating a calendar with our animal friends felt like a good idea, then we thought we would push the boundaries a bit by taking our clothes off and we hope it will raise a lot of money.

“We opened this project to all students at Easter Bush. I think with something like this it’s also a case of everyone wants to be part of the project. It’s something the whole student community can get together for and have fun.

“Everyone has been very enthusiastic about it.”

Gavin emphasised the importance of raising money for the All4Paws charity.

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He said: “Of course, it’s not for everyone, it’s quite a challenging thing to do sometimes but it’s nice when you have got a group of friends doing it together.

“It’s all for a good cause and everyone has that at the back of their minds when they are doing the photo shoots. And it’s a great story to tell friends and family, but most importantly it’s helping the charity.

“We have quite a few students working on it. It’s still ongoing. We started photo shoots about a month back, we are trying to get as many different animals as possible, so it has been quite difficult to source animals.

“It can also be difficult to arrange students with animals they want to have their photos taken with.”

However, Gavin admitted that he is still to bare all.

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He said: “I’m overseeing most of the project, making sure everything runs smoothly, there are quite a lot of things that need planning.

“We have got a student, Nirvana Leaver, she runs a small photography business and has been taking the photos, but she is also a vet student too.

“We are aiming to have the calendars printed and ready for delivery by the first week of December.

“I haven’t had my photo taken yet, we are considering doing a shoot with the organising committee but we have not quite got around to it yet.”

To pre-order the vet student’s All4Paws calendar go to www.whenvetsundress.org.