Directors
Rebecca
Sarah Smyth
CEO
Rebecca loves all animals but dogs are definitely her favourite and have been since she was young. Her parents grew up with dogs but as a family they didn’t have one until she was in her teens. It was years later after adopting 2 Romanian dogs that Pawprints to Freedom was started. Her vision was to help just a few dogs and on maternity leave had some time to spare. The horrors she had then only heard about in Romania had stuck with her and made her determined. Pawprints to Freedom grew from there and has become so much more than she had thought it would be. We have an amazing team and they are all family. This rescue has given her purpose and she is so proud of what we have achieved together.
Lynsey
Hewitson
FINANCIAL DIRECTOR
Lynsey became aware of the stray dog situation in Romania in 2015 when she adopted her first Romanian rescue dog. In 2016 she headed out to Romania on her own to volunteer at a shelter with another rescue. She loved it so much she didn’t want to leave and the minute she returned home she booked her next trip and has been every 2 months ever since. On one trip she was taken to a public shelter in Adjud. This was a forgotten shelter which no one knew existed. The dogs were only fed twice a week by local volunteers from their own very limited funds. The dogs were in a terrible condition, there was no available medical treatment and no one adopted dogs from here. She set up a group to help to raise funds. She assessed dogs and promoted them for adoption, which is when she was introduced to Rebecca Smyth. PPTF advertised some of the Adjud dogs for adoption and she joined forces with PPTF shortly after.
Carol
McCallum
Operations director
Carol McCallum heads up our surrenders team and works tirelessly finding fosters suitable for handbacks and also any UK dogs we take in. Carol also sorts all of our dogs needing the vets and treatments and is on hand for behavioural advice. Having 5 dogs of her own and many fosters she has a huge wealth of knowledge.
Management
Emma
Lamont
REGULATORY
MANAGER
Emma has loved dogs since she knew what they were. She stumbled across Pawprints to a Freedom in early 2018 when looking for a rescue dog. After having such a wonderful experience welcoming Lola into her home, she was hooked!
In November 2019 she also adopted Penny from Pawprints. Emma helps Pawprints to Freedom in any way she can, usually this is in the form of compliance and regulatory support.
She has a background In compliance, risk, complaints, dispute resolution, data privacy and myriad other things her daily work in financial regulation brings her into contact with.
Her biggest weakness, always adopting one more dog! “I really love the warm shared purpose everyone that volunteers at Pawprints has. Contributing to keeping dogs safe, healthy and happy makes it all worth it.”
Monika
Tom
ADOPTION & FOSTER
MANAGER
Monika is originally from Poland and moved to the UK 15 years ago. All her life she was rescuing animals. Even as a child she would bring home injured birds, squirrels and hedgehogs. She joined the Pawprints team about a year ago and has 3 beautiful rescue dogs from PPTF. She is still fostering and has 2 cats, but that’s not all – she also has 18 tarantulas! She deals with volunteer applications, admins and queries amongst other things. She loves her role because it means she can help people as well as animals. She struggles with social anxiety and thanks to volunteering for PPTF, she can still have contact with people. She has met lots of beautiful people through Pawprints to Freedom. So many of them are now more than friends, they are family.
Deputy Management
Lisa
Read
Albums and Compatability Deputy Manager
Lisa lives in South West Scotland with her husband, daughter and an assortment of animals – 5 dogs, 3 horses, 3 sheep and 20 ex-battery hens. Animals, particularly dogs, have always been her passion and over the years, Lisa has given a home to many rescue dogs, including 3 of her current pack.
Rosa
Mills
Resolutions Deputy Manager
It has always been Rosa’s intention to adopt a rescue dog when the time was right for her family. She applied to adopt from PPTF in April 2020 and was in awe of the volunteers who dedicated their time to the organisation. So she applied to volunteer herself.
Rosa stated off an as admin and has worked her way up to Deputy Manager. This has given her a better understanding of how the rescue works. Nothing makes her happier than seeing a dog in their forever home.