This feature on a local animal sanctuary was inspired by previous patch days in Norfolk that have worked well where we go behind the scenes at charities and organisations to learn more about the inspiring work that they do. People for Animal Care Trust (PACT) is one of the largest and most well-known animal sanctuaries in East Anglia, having rescued, rehabilitated and rehomed animals for more than 30 years.

One of the ideas I pitched during a morning conference was doing a Facebook Live at the sanctuary, interviewing people who volunteer there, getting a tour around the facility, and giving our readers an insight at the amazing work they do every day. In preparation for this day out, I did some research about them and the types of animals they rehome so I could provide a stronger base for my questions and make the feature as strong as it could possibly be.

Unfortunately, as soon as I got to the sanctuary, I ran into a problem. The signal in the area was absolutely terrible, meaning that a Facebook Live would not be possible, so, thinking on my feet, I decided to take some pictures and get some video footage of the animals and the tour, which would later be added into my feature.

There were a few things I needed to consider for my feature, which included getting permission from the volunteers to film and take photos as the sanctuary is a private property and I wanted to make sure they were 100% comfortable with the activity. I also spent a bit of time working on the angle of my feature as part of me was extremely concerned that the ‘grumpy goat’ angle might seem like I was inadvertently making fun of their work, but after chatting with my editor, I realised it was light-hearted and wasn’t a damaging reflection on them in any way.

Once I edited the video and chose which pictures I was going to use, they were added it into the feature and the article went live to the public. I feel that the multimedia element really gave the article a boost as the story did more than 5,000 views, which is a figure it might not have achieved with no video and it also really shows how much stories about local charities resonate with our readers, as many of the comments gushed about the animals and were glowing about the sanctuary’s work.