International Charity Day is an event that marks the difference charities make to communities and individuals. The event is celebrated September 5th and highlights all the good work charities do.

Barry and District News reached out to SHUA Trust Home & Sanctuary. A cat charity that helps to rehome and rehabilitate cats in the Vale of Glamorgan. The charity was visited by the Mayor of Barry, Councillor Catherine Iannucci-Williams last June. The Mayor has since selected the charity as one of her chosen charities for the Mayoral year.

Mayor of Barry, Councillor Catherine Iannucci-Williams with cats Mayor of Barry, Councillor Catherine Iannucci-Williams with cats (Image: Vale of Glamorgan Council)

Here’s what the volunteers that run the charity had to say

Kay Kisby, 63, said: “We’ve had a lot of contact with the Mayor over the years because as a child her mother came down with her and adopted some kittens of us and now she’s got her own household with her husband and she came back and adopted cats for herself and kittens for herself.”

“So, we are absolutely thrilled that she’s nominated us as one of her chosen charities this year.”

Jacqui Burgess, 63, said: “The cats love it they love people they love seeing the public, so they were particularly excited-Our cats love photographs and when they carried out the photo’s we got quite a lot of response for homes.”

“We have family come down to do viewings and they bring their children with them and often the parent actually came down when they were toddlers or children themselves-so that really hits home.”

 

The charity saw demand for rehabilitation and rehoming increase during the pandemic

Kay explained: “In the lockdown we became 100% a sanctuary, but since then we’ve had to open our doors again just because of the problem in our local area when people were struggling so much with animals.”

Jacqui added: “A great number of the animals we rescue are never going to be rehomed, and that obviously puts extra pressure on us here, but we have a lot of individuals that are looking for homes.”

The charity has been operating for 25 years and in the last 8 years has rehomed more than 6 thousand cats. Today’s figures are estimated to be greater than this.