Philanthropist Simrin Choudhrie: Heart of Pure Gold

Recognised as a successful interior designer, Simrin Choudhrie is a celebrated philanthropist as well. Connecting with the world with a zest for helping the unprivileged, Simrin has always tried to break the shackles and work outside her limits to help them. Her ideology is that until you spend time amid those who require help, you will not be able to form a loving relationship with them.

The idea of contributing towards the society as a responsible citizen, Simrin signed up for the hit reality TV show “Secret Millionaire”, and stayed at the St. Wilfrid’s Centre with vulnerable and socially excluded people, acting as an impoverished, pregnant lady. After getting to know her real identity, everybody including the director Kevin Bradley was in a state of shock. After everyone on the centre on Queens Road knew her identity, she promised the six-figure sum to be donated over the next five years. 

Simrin ended up donating the biggest amount ever received on the show to the charity house.

Kevin exclaimed, “What she has done for St Wilfrid’s is absolutely mind-blowing.

“When she revealed who she was it just felt surreal - things like that don’t happen in real life, or so you think.

“The money she has pledged will make a huge difference to the lives of vulnerable people in Sheffield.”

Simrin’s involvement was more than just charity as she got really attached to the people and the staff and clients had gotten an amazing human being as a friend for life. 

“She is such a lovely girl,” Kevin said. “You would never know where she came from - there was nothing pretentious about her.

“At different points I did start to think there was something a little mysterious about her,” Kevin said. “But I could never really get to the bottom of it.

“When the time came for her to reveal herself to me I’d convinced myself I was being silly - so I was certainly shocked when she told me she was millionaire!

“She was really upset - crying that she felt like she had been deceitful towards me - and she said she felt bad because she had come to see me as a kind of father figure.

“Everybody was crying when she came out with the news, we just couldn’t believe it. It was a very emotional day.”

She was so much attached to the foundation that she has named her baby boy Kabir Bhanu Wilfrid Choudhrie.

“That’s how much she loves the place - she wanted to name her son after us!” Kevin said.

Sharing his happiness on having met Simrin, he added: 

“We have made a friend for life in Simrin, and that’s a wonderful thing.”

Simrin Choudhrie: From Secret Millionaire to winning a million hearts

Renowned interior designer, Simrin Choudhrie, has earned applauses for her entrepreneurship, philanthropy and humanitarian work. Born and brought up with all the privileges around, Simrin goes out of her way to help out the lesser privileged. 

She believes to really help a community; a person needs to actually feel their plight and this thought motivated her to be a part of the hit reality TV show Secret Millionaire and ended up donating one of the highest amounts in the programme’s history to a Sheffield charity. 

Simrin appeared as an impoverished mum-to-be on the show and changed the lives of people at St. Wilfrid’s Centre for the vulnerable and socially excluded. Even director Kevin Bradley was awed to realise the woman he was instructing was a millionaire interior designer. 

After everyone on the centre on Queens Road knew her identity, she promised the six-figure sum to be donated over the next five years. 

Pleasantly surprised, Kevin said: “What she has done for St Wilfrid’s is absolutely mind-blowing.

“When she revealed who she was it just felt surreal - things like that don’t happen in real life, or so you think.

“The money she has pledged will make a huge difference to the lives of vulnerable people in Sheffield.”

Kevin said Simrin’s involvement was more than just charity as the staff and clients had gotten an amazing human being as a friend for life. 

“She is such a lovely girl,” Kevin said. “You would never know where she came from - there was nothing pretentious about her.

“At different points I did start to think there was something a little mysterious about her,” Kevin said. “But I could never really get to the bottom of it.

“When the time came for her to reveal herself to me I’d convinced myself I was being silly - so I was certainly shocked when she told me she was millionaire!

“She was really upset - crying that she felt like she had been deceitful towards me - and she said she felt bad because she had come to see me as a kind of father figure.

“Everybody was crying when she came out with the news, we just couldn’t believe it. It was a very emotional day.”

Simrin gave birth to a son in February - a little boy she has named Kabir Bhanu Wilfrid Choudhrie.

“That’s how much she loves the place - she wanted to name her son after us!” Kevin said.

Sharing his delight for having met Simrin, he added: 

“We have made a friend for life in Simrin, and that’s a wonderful thing.”

The Herd of Horses being Healed and Healing at Mane Chance Sanctuary

An exemplary initiative by renowned actress Jenny Seagrove has driven everyone across the globe to take note. This initiative is Mane Chance Sanctuary – a perfect equine haven which has risen from the bottom to giving therapy to both horses and people. 

To do something benevolent for the equines, the management at Mane Chance got in James French, pioneer in trust technique and his partner Shelley Slingo to provide therapeutic sessions to equines and building a close relationship with them. 

''When all this began, I knew the horses would need therapy,” Jenny says. “I asked James French, who I had known through his work as a reiki master for 20 years, and who is a renowned animal communicator, to help out.’’

''It’s about getting the limbic system – the part of the brain associated with emotions and memories – of horse and human - in sync,’’ says Seagrove.

The technique has seen healing benefits not only to the horses but also humans. The horses turn out to be healers’ once humans forms close and loving relationship with them. Students under the Duke of Edinburgh programme, as well as kids from the hospice at Christopher’s in Guildford have seen the positive effects of “healing herd.”

''We had groups of children and volunteers here, some of whom had their own issues and a rapport and trust was building between some of the horses with the humans who seemed to need those most.’’ 

There was a time when Mane Chance had hit the rock bottom and was about to close down in 2011 when a friend of Jenny’s expressed her inability to feed a huge herd of horses and thus might shut the sanctuary down. ''It was one of those life-changing moments when you find a real purpose. Setting up a charity was a massive adventure” she recalls.

''I called a friend who found Monkshatch Garden Farm, where the owner let us rent the 47 acres we needed. A year later, we were offered it for sale.’’ She revealed the hard times she had to face while setting up this farm. Jenny had to sell her flat in London and philanthropist Simrin Choudhrie came to her rescue by chipping in for the noble cause.