A hugely successful fundraising farmer has not given up on his dream of raising £250,000 for charity in memory of his wife.  

Emyr Wigley 78, who lives at Deytheur, near Llansantffraid, is determined to reach his fundraising goal for two charities – Ovarian Cancer Action and Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution (RABI) – in memory of his late wife, Evelyn.

Mr Wigley has so far raised over £200,000 for the two charities through the establishment of his unique Old Stackyard Blues herd which he created to raise money for charity.

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The herd was established in 2016 in memory of Evelyn who died the previous year, at the age of 69, from ovarian cancer.

Emyr pledged to raise awareness and educate people about ovarian cancer, which he describes as an “evil disease” as a tribute to her.

“I am really happy with the amount already raised, but my target when Evelyn was very poorly was £250,000,” said Mr Wigley. “It doesn’t matter if I don’t get there but we are well on the way. I’m hoping that in another five years, we might hit the target.

“We have been supported by a lot of very generous people. If Evelyn were alive today, she probably wouldn’t believe we had raised so much money, but I think she would be happy.

“She would probably think I had lost the plot,” he joked, “but at least Evelyn’s memory lives on. Memories of our time together are what inspired my first book, sales of which have raised £6,000 so far.”

In January, the Mr Wigley was badly injured by one of his bulls whilst preparing it for a sale in Carlisle.

He is lucky to be alive after the “spooked” bull crushed and trampled him, leaving him with a badly injured leg and broken ribs.

But due to his injuries, he decided to sell his herd of 33 pedigree British Blue cattle at auction in Shrewsbury raising £81,000.

The auction was conducted by Jonny Dymond, manager of Shrewsbury Auction Centre and senior auctioneer at Halls, who made a significant donation to the total.

Ovarian Cancer Action plans to fund a specialist researcher for an entire year with its share of the sale proceeds whilst RABI said the money will help the charity to reach more people with its services and transform lives.

Now Mr Wigley has set his sights on raising the remainder needed to hit the £250,000 target and wants to sell all 400 remaining copies of his book, ‘The Journey’, before considering writing a sequel.

He also has a couple of remaining bulls from his herd to sell and plans to open his garden to groups of all sizes this summer. He is also offering his services as an after-dinner speaker and has other fundraising plans in the pipeline.

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“I do miss the cattle because I am a cattle man through and through. However, I was realistic from the start and knew the day was going to come,” said Mr Wigley.

“If it hadn’t have been this year, it would probably have been next year. We had seven years of pleasure from the cattle and got to meet some wonderfully generous people.”

Visit http://www.oldstackyardblues.com/ to find out how to buy a book or make a donation to the two charities.