South Shields animator Sheila Graber recognised with a national animal charity award

Sheila Graber, the animator behind the BBC children’s television series Paddington, has picked up a national award for her work with an animal rights charity.

Sheila, who is from South Shields, has won a country-wide competition which was held by the Humanimal Trust - a charity “drives collaboration between vets, doctors and researchers so that all humans and animals benefit from sustainable and equal medical progress but not at the expense of an animal’s life”.

The competition was judged by Professor Noel Fitzpatrick, of Channel 4’s The Supervet who selected Sheila’s short video to receive first place.

The video showcased hand-drawn images that morphed between human and animal faces to show how the different species are connected.

Speaking to the Gazette after she won the award, Sheila explained that she has supported the charity for a number of years and is glad that her work can help their cause.

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She commented: “I have supported Humanimal Trust for many years - and made them cartoons just for fun - like this one showing how animals and people are very alike.

“I entered a more serious animation into their competition to try to put the message over in a different way.

“The only section that I fitted into was the ‘over 19’ section so when I was informed that I had won it, I rang them to say I felt the gap between 19 and 84 was a bit big and would much rather the actual award went to a younger person.

“So they have given the prizes to runner up Ella, aged 19, who wins some signed books and special back-pack. It is much better suited to her than I!

“I’m just glad that the short animation might help raise awareness of their so important cause.”

You can find out more about the work that the Humanimal Trust carries out by visiting: https://www.humanimaltrust.org.uk/.