Clarkson's Farm fans donate £34,000 to help TB-hit dairy farmer

01 March 2023 , 17:56

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Clarkson's Farm fans donate £34,000 to help TB-hit dairy farmer

Clarkson's Farm star Emma Ledbury has said she was in "total shock" when fans of the show raised an eyewatering amount to help her TB-hit farm recover.

The dairy farmer appeared on the Prime Video series when she told Jeremy Clarkson that hold of her herd of 60 cows had been completely wiped out by the disease.

After the episode was released onto the streaming giant, fans rallied around to help Emma raise money to get herself back on track and ensure that she was able to relaunch her business.

During an appearance on Channel 4's Steph's Packed Lunch, Emma explained that fan Beccie Poole created a GoFundMe page for the farmer.

Dairy farmer Emma Ledbury shared her shock after fans raised over £30,000 for her farm (Channel 4)

Emma said: "It was a real shock, we found out this lovely lady called Beccie, that we'd never met before, a total stranger, had set up a GoFundMe page through seeing my story on Clarkson's Farm.

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"It's really lovely, a total shock.

"I was literally on telly for 30 seconds, so never expected any sort of support in this way, it's just really lovely of everybody that's donated."

Emma previously appeared on Jeremy Clarkson's Farm (Channel 4 / Amazon Prime Video)

The dairy farmer revealed that the majority of the £34,000 will be donated to the Royal Agriculture Benevolent Institution (RABI) – a charity organisation which is dedicated to supporting farming communities across both England and Wales.

She continued: "It's become quite overwhelming the amount of support we've had from the general public and their donations.

"So it's really lovely that there's such a big pot there now that we can give some money to RABI to ensure that they can get some more help out to other farmers through counselling or TB advice."

Emma appeared on Steph's Packed Lunch as she discussed the fan fundraiser (Channel 4)

While Emma acknowledged that the money could have massively helped her, she insisted that it could also help more farmers across the two countries.

Reflecting on the devastating impact TB had on her 120-acre farm on the Oxfordshire and Warwickshire border, she told Steph McGovern: "It's just devastating to lose your cows when you've spent so long, rearing them and getting them to be as healthy as possible, through no control of your own."

Emma added that the effects were "depressing" as the farmer can never get over losing so many animals had lost their lives due to the disease.

The farmer went on to say that livestock owners across the entire nation are losing "thousands of cows" each year as TB continues to wipe out the animals.

Daniel Bird