Shropshire Star

Snapper lens a hand to wildlife charity

Nature enthusiasts enjoyed an educational evening with keen wildlife photographer and enthusiast Kate MacRae.

Published

The event, which was held at The Edge Arts Centre in Much Wenlock aimed to raise funds for Cuan House, a wildlife centre based on the outskirts of the town.

Kate is a well known figure having featured on prime time TV programmes including BBC's Countryfile, Springwatch and Autumnwatch.

"I think it's sterling work for any small organisation like Cuan because they perform such a important job," said Kate.

She added: "British wildlife needs all the help it can get. Every year I do talks all over the country, but I like to do a charity based one for free to help a British wildlife charity raise money.

"My talk basically leads people through a whistle stop tour of all the work I do."

Kate grew up in South East London, and has always been obsessed with natural history.

After training as a primary school teacher, she later moved to the Midlands which lead to the launch of her brand Wildlife Kate.

Charity

Cuan House has been based in Shropshire for almost 30 years, the charity was founded by Megan Morris-Jones.

In 2017 Cuan House cared for 3,373 creatures, and by September this year the charity had already exceeded these figures.

Megan said: "We started off in a two up two down cottage to test the water, and the charity just took off in a small way.

"At one point we had to ask ourselves 'do we want to go on?' because we had creatures sitting on our dining room table.

"Although it was a life changing decision, it was a relatively easy one because sadly injured wildlife is never going to go away."

The charity takes in various injured creatures from across Shropshire, Staffordshire and the Welsh Borders.

The team have even treated a blue tit which was bought down from Aberdeen and an injured pigeon which was bought via train from London.

For more information about the charity visit cuanwildliferescue.org.uk