Most of us have gone through a stage of serious fandom at some point in our lives – whether it’s an obsession with a movie star, a bedroom lined with posters of our favourite girl/boyband or some serious statistical knowledge about our favourite sports team, super fans come in many shapes and sizes. Few, however, are willing to go as far as to pay more than £1 million to see their dream come true in their own living room.
Yet that is exactly what Take That super fan Elaine Fairfax did in an auction for
Children in Need on the Chris Evans’ BBC Radio 2 show. Her actions have made national headlines and the woman who was willing to put her wallet where her fandom is, just happens to have made her riches via insurance.
Fairfax has quite the intriguing background. Like so many success stories her road started out a little rocky – leaving school at the age of 15 with no qualifications. Yet she managed to map out a successful legal career before… approaching the age of 50… she decided that it was time to do something she really loved, and, given her passion for animals, felt that pet insurance was the right option.
“I didn’t want to set up an [animal] charity as when you do that you’re expecting people to give money to you,” she said in an interview with High50.com in 2015. “Because of my business skills, I thought I’d like to be the person who makes the money and I could give it back to animal welfare, so I thought long and hard about what the best vehicle would be.
“Pet insurance was the obvious choice because I hoped people would be gripped by the concept – let’s face it, no one likes paying out for insurance. It’s a bit like taxes: you know you’ve got to do it.
“But if people don’t claim on their policy, then at least they know that some of their money is going to help the less fortunate animals than the ones that they own.”
In 2002, she went for broke, remortgaging her home and setting up a facility and Animal Friends was born. It took a long time however, for the business to truly thrive – by 2008 it had just 12,000 policyholders compared to more than 400,000 by 2015. Indeed by 2015 the company had a turnover in excess of £52 million.
Animal Friends offers dog, cat and horse insurance and has donated more than £2.5 million to various charities during its existence. However, it was Fairfax’s solo charity donation of £1.1 million to earn a private Take That concert that has really thrust her into the spotlight.
On hearing of the size of the donation made by Fairfax, lead singer Gary Barlow commented that: “We’ll come and sing to you, have a drink with you, have selfies, see your friends, meet your mum and dad. Whatever you want us to do, we'll do it.
“Try and get rid of us. You’ll be pushing us out the door by the end of it.”
However, her big spending has not won her favour with some viewers of TV show
This Morning who described her decision as “ludicrous” and stated that she had “more money than sense” on social media.
Still, given how hard Fairfax appears to have worked for her money – and the fact that it is going to a good cause – can anyone really object to her actions? Leave a comment below with your thoughts on her decision – good for her, or money madness?
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