{"id":84761,"date":"2025-08-20T22:58:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T22:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/84761\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T22:58:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T22:58:11","slug":"tributes-to-award-winning-badger-champion-debbie-bailey-who-died-after-collapse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/84761\/","title":{"rendered":"Tributes to award-winning ‘badger champion’ Debbie Bailey who died after collapse"},"content":{"rendered":"

Asha Patel<\/p>\n

BBC News, East Midlands<\/p>\n

\"FamilyFamily handout<\/p>\n

Debbie Bailey, 58, became well-known among wildlife charities for her dedication to the protection of badgers<\/p>\n

Tributes have been paid to an award-winning “badger champion” who died after collapsing while carrying out vaccination work. <\/p>\n

Debbie Bailey, a former nurse, became a conservationist after taking an interest in the badgers that visited her garden in the High Peak in Derbyshire. <\/p>\n

The 58-year-old, who went on to dedicate her life to the protection of badgers, died in hospital on 1 August, after her family said she suddenly collapsed days earlier.<\/p>\n

More than \u00a315,000 has been raised towards a foundation the family plan to set up in Ms Bailey’s memory.<\/p>\n

\"FamilyFamily handout<\/p>\n

Ms Bailey eventually left her nursing career to focus on her passion for badger conservation<\/p>\n

Ms Bailey was working as a nurse when she became intrigued by the badgers in her garden and started to feed them. <\/p>\n

She then started a “badger watch”, inviting people to her home to see the badgers, for a small fee, which she donated to the High Peak Badger Group, her stepson Gareth Wilson said. <\/p>\n

Ms Bailey later became a trustee of the animal welfare charity the Badger Trust and lead vaccinator for the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust.<\/p>\n

She led pioneering vaccination projects to help reduce the risk of the spread of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in the badger population and the spread to cattle. <\/p>\n

The UK government has allowed the culling of badgers under licence since 2013 to tackle the spread of bTB. <\/p>\n

Mr Wilson said his stepmother’s work as a conservationist “demonstrated to government that there was an alternative to culling”.<\/p>\n

‘A special power’ <\/p>\n

In 2018, Ms Bailey won the Animal Action Award by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) in recognition of her work. <\/p>\n

“She was an amazing person,” Mr Wilson said. “She was the life and the soul of any room that she was in.<\/p>\n

“She was a fun, loving, happy person.” <\/p>\n

He added throughout Ms Bailey’s life and achievements, she always said she “wouldn’t be able to do it without all the volunteers”. <\/p>\n

Ms Bailey also managed to persuade family and friends to get involved in her vaccination work. <\/p>\n

“I even found myself digging traps,” Mr Wilson added. “She had a special power to get people involved and get people interested.” <\/p>\n

\"FamilyFamily handout<\/p>\n

Ms Bailey’s family said while she worked hard, she always knew how to “let her hair down”<\/p>\n

Her partner David Wilson also helped dig traps and picked up tasks alongside Ms Bailey. <\/p>\n

Tracey Bailey, the conservationist’s sister, said while she was recovering from breast cancer treatment, Ms Bailey got her out of the house to help with vaccinating. <\/p>\n

“That was my first outing after all my treatment – badgering with Debbie – and I’ve been involved ever since,” she said. <\/p>\n

The 60-year-old added: “I’m just so utterly proud of her. <\/p>\n

“It’s going to take a while for it to sink in what she’s left behind.” <\/p>\n

‘Legacy of care’<\/p>\n

A number of animal and wildlife charities have paid tribute to Ms Bailey since she died. <\/p>\n

The Badger Trust called Ms Bailey a “true badger champion”. <\/p>\n

In a tribute on the charity’s website, it said: “With quiet determination and a generous heart, she transformed passion into meaningful action, leaving a lasting legacy of care, compassion, and change.<\/p>\n

“Above all, Debbie will be remembered for her kindness.” <\/p>\n

Ms Bailey leaves behind her partner, two stepsons and a stepdaughter, her parents, sister and her brother. Her funeral will be held on Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Asha Patel BBC News, East Midlands Family handout Debbie Bailey, 58, became well-known among wildlife charities for her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-84761","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}