A feline charity has been awarded a grant from Battersea Dogs and Cats Home.

London-based charity Feline Friends has received a grant to fund their work in rescuing, neutering and rehoming abandoned cats.

The charity is launching two new pilot project called 'Trap, Neuter, Norish and Sustain' to help stray and feral cats in four London boroughs: Waltham Forest, Haringey, Islington and Hackney, and 'Marnie's Feast' to donate food to people struggling to feed their own cats.

Founder of Feline Friends London Barbara Read said: ""We applaud Battersea for its generous and ongoing support for smaller animal charities and rescue organisations across the country, through their Animal Partnerships. This grant will enable us to launch an exciting and innovative project: 'Trap, Neuter, Nourish and Sustain: Safeguarding London’s Cats' and means we can rescue many more of the estimated half million stray and feral cats across the capital, who so desperately need our help, as well as cats whose owners are struggling to feed them.

"We aim to achieve this by recruiting and training volunteer cat trappers to join our dedicated team of volunteers, and by establishing food banks for strays and for people struggling to feed their own cats. We are initially focusing on four London boroughs – Hackney, Haringey, Islington & Waltham Forest - but plan to roll out the project across London and to make it sustainable."

To aid the initiative the charity are seeking volunteers in the four target boroughs to assist with training in cat trapping to help us get more cats neutered, vet-treated, fostered and rehomed and identifying drop off points for food donations and co-ordinate hand-out or distribution.

Marnie's Feast was inspired by a cat Marnie and her three kittens that were badly nourished when Feline Friends rescued them.

One of the kittens did not survive and the other two needed specialist vet care.

This led to the idea of creating a food bank for donations to the Feline Friends foster cats called Marnie's Feast.

Margaret Hulme, grants manager at Battersea, said: “We hope that this grant will help make a real difference to the lives of cats and dogs in the community.

"Battersea helps more than 7,000 dogs and cats each year, at our three centres in London, Berkshire and Kent and beyond.

"We want to support rescues and shelters in the UK, not only by awarding funding, but also by sharing the experiences and knowledge we have gained as an animal welfare charity that has been rescuing and rehoming animals for 158 years."

Battersea Grants is a new initiative aimed to support smaller rescues and shelters by offering grants of between £3,000 and £15,000 to help organisations continue their work with dogs and cats across the UK.

To volunteer for either element of the project, email: admin@felinefriendslondon.uk, putting ‘Trap, Neuter, Nourish & Sustain’ or 'Marnie's Feast' in the subject line or call: 07786 380572.