Simrin Choudhrie – Designer by Profession, Philanthropist by Choice

A renowned philanthropist, talented interior designer, a wife and most importantly a loving mother – Simrin Choudhrie embodies the various traits of a 21^st century woman who oscillates between personal and professional world with excellence. Simrin dedicatedly served to the best of society’s interest for a major portion of her life, and is determined to continually work for its benefit.

Simrin, who is an interior designer by profession, pursued graduation in architectural interior from the Inchbald School of Design and is the founder and director of Bach Interiors Limited. 

Belonging to the elite section of society, Simrin’s idea of charity has always been based on spending quality time amid those less privileged to understand their issues closely and address them efficiently. 

This was one of the reasons that persuaded her to be a part of hit reality TV show “Secret Millionaire”, where she resided at the St. Wilfrid’s Centre for vulnerable people disguised as an impoverished, pregnant lady. Moved by the people and their prevailing condition, Simrin ended up signing the biggest cheque of donation ever received on the show. Now, she is also the patron of this Sheffield charity house. Apart from this, she is also one of the integral members of board of trustees at Mane Chance Sanctuary, an organisation in Guildford which is a home for abandoned and abused horses set up by actress Jenny Seagrove. 

Simrin is also the trustee for ‘Path to Success’, a London based charity house set up by Anita Choudhrie that works to uplift the disadvantaged and disabled both in India and UK. Picking particular causes every year, the established charity house has been collecting funds for the multitalented London Titans Wheelchair Basketball Club this year. They also arranged for a fundraiser wheelchair basketball tournament in April, from which the funds collected were spent to procure new custom wheelchairs, training equipment and to book venues for training sessions of London Titans. So far they have collected £42,000 for the team.

Simrin’s endless efforts were recognised and she was awarded with the GG2 Social Entrepreneur of the year award in November 2012.

Simrin Choudhrie – The Secret Millionaire with a Noble Heart

“True charity is the desire to be useful to others with no thought of recompense.”

The quote above signifies the true motive behind Simrin Choudhrie. Interior designer by profession and philanthropist by choice, Simrin has always continually added to the benefit of society. Brought up in a wealthy family, she has always believed in undertaking path breaking work for the underprivileged section of society and now is a trustee to various charity organisations.

Simrin has always believed in the idea of spending time amid the needy to understand their issues and attend to them innately. This was one of the reasons which led her to feature on the famous reality TV show “Secret Millionaire” where millionaires are supposed to stay incognito at poverty stricken areas to understand the plight unprivileged live through.  Simrin stayed disguised as an impoverished pregnant woman at St. Wilfrid’s Centre for vulnerable and socially excluded. Her innate love for the people she stayed with and their major concerns pushed her to sign the biggest amount of charity ever received on the show. 

On getting to know who she actually is, everybody at the centre including director Kevin Bradley was taken aback. He stated: “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.”

She got so attached and drawn towards the people that it pushed her to sign the biggest donation cheque ever received on the show.

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

According to Kevin, the bond now formed between Simrin and others extends more than charity; it’s a relationship 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 has equal love and regard for Wilfrid, which became evident when she named her son Kabir Bhanu Wilfrid Choudhrie.

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

The Magic of Therapeutic Sessions at Mane Chance Sanctuary

Jenny Seagrove is one of the most talented actresses and has been continually garnered with love and appreciation for her acclaimed acting skills. More recently she added another feather to her cap by establishing a real home for abandoned and ill equine named Mane Chance Sanctuary.

''Mane Chance came about in desperate circumstances in 2011 when a friend rang to say she couldn’t afford to feed her large collection of animals, many of which she had rescued.’’ 

''It was one of those life-changing moments when you find a real purpose. Setting up a charity – a massive adventure.” She discussed how a phone call helped her find a purpose. 

''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.’’ Setting up the farm was not a hassle-free process.

On a borrowed farmland, with the help of philanthropist SimrinChoudhrie, Jenny set up the center to rescue abandoned horses. She said, ''I had to sell my flat in London and ask Simrin, who has been amazing, to chip in.’’

Beyond this, the team at Mane Chance has been nurturing the animals with extra care and love by providing them regular therapeutic sessions. The management got Mr. James French, pioneer in trust technique and his partner Shelley Slingo to join the system. The technique includes mindfulness and tapping the relationship between horses and people.

''When all this began, I knew the horses would need therapy,” she 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,’’ Seagrove concluded.

Seagrove gradually noticed that the animals were not the only one affected by French’s treatment and affection. ''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 them the most.’’ 

''We’re at the start of a very big journey to see a new purpose for horses in society as healers, but you have to start somewhere, says Seagrove.’’

Children with special needs and abilities are now regulars at the sanctuary and are affected largely by the technique. Horses are termed as “healing herd” now, thanks to the wonderful initiative led by Seagrove and French.