Patricia Dymock - 1927 - 2002

In 1983 Patricia Dymock, a teacher from Worcestershire, encountered stray cats around her hotel during a holiday in Tunisia. Patricia returned to the UK, but plagued by thoughts about one cat, she launched launched a national appeal to bring “Kismet” to the UK through quarantine.

While common nowadays, this was an unusual case in 1983. Patricia soon found that donations received far exceeded the amount needed. So with the help of SPANA, she used the excess to arrange for a volunteer (Peter Neville) to travel to the hotel in Tunisia and trap the remaining cats for neutering.

Patricia became well known in the field, inspiring many others to become involved in similar work. She wrote the story down in a book, The Kismet Account, which sold in thousands & funded her animal welfare work. As the 1980s became the 1990s, Patricia realized she had the skill and drive to begin sending her own teams abroad.

She hadn’t forgotten animals at home, and established Westlands Pet Project – a low cost spay-neuter initiative at her home town of Droitwich Spa. She raised funds, negotiated with vets, and ferried animals to ensure that pet animals belonging to people on low incomes, got neutered. Her work – at home and away – was recognized with awards from the RSPCA and Cats Protection.

As well as the fight to protect animals at home and abroad, Pat was fighting another battle, that with cancer. I met Pat during 2002 for the first time, having taken on organising a neutering trip for her, and despite pain and discomfort from the condition and some of the medication, she remained dedicated to her cause.

Patricia Dymock died peacefully in a nursing home in November 2002 a few hours after moving in. She never had the chance to see her Kismet Account develop 10–fold but we hope she’d approve of what we are doing today.

Ian MacFarlaine