A Lifetime Of Devotion

Barby Keel is living her dream, caring for 600 animals with nowhere else to go

- Jenna Macferlane

Barby Keel is 82 years old and owns a 12-acre animal sanctuary in the idyllic Sussex countryside.

Describing it as her “lifelong dream”, the area is home to 600 animals – pigs and sheep, dogs and cats, rabbits and squirrels – and she wakes up at half-past six every morning to look after them.

It’s a rewarding job which brings Barby great joy – and she believes this connection with animals helped her to recover from her two bouts of breast cancer.

“It’s an extraordinary feeling when you go into hospital and you don’t know if you’re going to come out. I’m looking out the window thinking, ‘I have to come out because my animals need me’,” she says.

When animals are dumped on her doorstep when their owners can’t look after them anymore, it’s Barby’s job to ensure they have the chance to lead a healthy, happy life.

It’s this sense of responsibility which brought her much-needed solace during her bleakest times.

Before Barby decided to pursue a country lifestyle and founded the sanctuary, she lived in Eastbourne. She was even offered a modelling job with a major soft drinks brand, but turned it down as it wasn’t her cup of tea!