Our celebrity ambassadors and supporters

Pam Ferris is an actor well-known for memorable roles including Ma Larkin in The Darling Buds of May, Miss Trunchbull in Matilda, Cath Smith in Gavin & Stacey and Sister Evangelina in Call the Midwife. 

She is a long-term supporter of Blue Cross and has been an ambassador since 2015.

As our ambassador, she brings not only her public recognition but also a genuine commitment to supporting our work to help pets and people. She has supported our work across rehoming and fostering, gifts in wills, Pet Peace of Mind and voiced our 125th anniversary film and recent TV advert.

Pam adopted her previous dogs, Sophie and Moppet, from Blue Cross. She has a parson jack russell called Elsie.

TV presenter and campaigner Chris Packham CBE is widely respected for his work in wildlife conservation, environmental education and animal welfare. He is well-known for popular television programmes Springwatch and Winterwatch, and prior to this the long-running children’s series The Really Wild Show. Through his broadcasting, Chris has inspired generations to better understand and appreciate animals and the natural world.

A Blue Cross ambassador since 2017, he lends authority and profile to our work, helping to increase awareness and inspire positive change. His support includes fronting our educational videos to teach young people about responsible pet ownership and welfare, our Protecting Your Postie campaign, our campaign to end greyhound racing, as well as shining a light on our rehoming and fostering appeals.

Chris has two dogs, poodles Sid and Nancy.

Mary King MBE DL is an equestrian and Olympian who had a 46-year career competing in eventing until her retirement in 2026. Representing Great Britain she won three Olympic medals. Other accolades include medals at The World Equestrian Games and European Eventing Championships, as well as winning at Badminton and Burghley.

Mary has supported Blue Cross for many years, becoming an ambassador in 2018.

She has visited our Burford horse unit several times, as well as supporting Blue Cross when we were Charity of the Year at Badminton in 2008, backing The National Equine Health Survey, promoting our Pet Loss Support service, Pet Peace of Mind, Blue Cross Code and raising awareness of our equine rehoming, advice and education work.

As well as her horses, Mary has a dog, Jake, and cat, Cecil.

Dr Ben Simpson-Vernon MA VetMB MRCVS is a practising vet and social media content creator, also known as ‘Ben the Vet’. He has built up a large following by sharing his matter-of-fact videos on pet health and welfare topics. To educate prospective and current pet owners, he publishes informative and factual content, dispels myths and disinformation, and calls out harmful trends that can also become prevalent on social media.

Ben became a Blue Cross ambassador in 2026. He supports Blue Cross by sharing our messaging on his social media platforms. This has included pet advice, rehoming and fostering, neutering awareness, Pet Loss Support, Big Pet Census and Blue Cross Code. He was also involved in the media launch of our campaign to raise awareness of the Hidden Pet Welfare Crisis.

He has a family dog, Labrador, Hattie.

Diane Morgan is an actor, writer and director, best known for her role of Philomena Cunk, as well as Liz in Motherland, Kath in Ricky Gervais’ hit comedy After Life, and Mandy Carter in Mandy’ a comedy series which she created, wrote and directed.

Diane has supported Blue Cross since 2019 when she adopted her toy poodle dog, Bobby, from us. She has supported our campaign to end greyhound racing, voiced our Christmas and Winter appeal advertisements, pet advice, as well as raising awareness of our End The Trend campaign and our rehoming and fostering appeals.

Professor David Olusoga OBE is a historian, producer, presenter and author. He is Professor of Public History at the University of Manchester, has authored several award-winning history books, and has also written for The Guardian, The Observer, New Statesman and BBC History magazine. TV credits include presenting programmes including A House Through Time, Civilisations and Empire: The World's First Superpower with David Olusoga, appearing on The Celebrity Traitors, and producing shows including A Thousand Blows and Union with David Olusoga.

David is a strong supporter of our campaign to end greyhound racing, helping us to raise awareness of this important issue in the media and on social media. He also helped Blue Cross deliver our campaign petition to 10 Downing Street.

David has two rescue greyhounds, George and Jasmine, both former racing dogs from Ireland.

David James is a former England goalkeeper and football manager. He has amassed 53 caps for his country over an international career spanning 13 years. As well as playing for England, clubs have included Portsmouth, West Ham, Liverpool and Watford. He has coached Luton Town and managed Kerala Blasters and is now a TV football commentator and artist.

David was a special guest judge for our Paws to Draw competition and has also supported our challenge events and Blue Cross Medal activities.

David has lived with pets all his life, including rescue dogs and cats.

Roo Irvine is a TV presenter and antiques expert, presenting on programmes including Antiques Roadtrip, Celebrity Antiques Roadtrip and Bargain Hunt, as well as appearing on quiz shows such as Celebrity Mastermind and Pointless Celebrities, donating her winnings to Blue Cross.

Roo completed her own ‘Hoopathon’ challenge, hula-hooping for 10 hours to raise money for our Blue Cross Ukraine Pet Welfare Fund. She has also helped promote our other challenge events, rehoming and fostering appeals, retail activities, pet advice and campaigns.

Roo has three Maine coon cats – Mango Chutney, Kimchi Cherry Blossom and Miso Dexter, who often get involved in promoting Blue Cross on social media.