A man who gave up a legal career to start an animal hospital from his family home is desperate for help.

London Wildcare Trust needs donations as its hospital is on the brink of closure.

The hospital, based in Beddington Park, Wallington with an education and ecology centre in Wandsworth, is one of the largest and busiest professional wildlife facilities in the UK. It rescues and treats thousands of sick, injured and orphaned animals and birds every year.

But director Ted Burden says keeping the hospital open is a real struggle.

He said: “We have nearly closed three times, it is so hard to balance the books.

“The hospital costs about £120,000 a year to run, but we do not get any funding.

“We do not come under the lottery or the Government’s charity remits so we rely entirely on donations from the public and membership.”

A team of trained medical staff is on duty 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, to take in animals from across London and beyond.

An army of some 100 volunteers feeds, cleans and nurses hundreds of foxes, ducklings, baby birds and squirrels back to health so they can be released back into the wild.

“Closing the hospital just doesn't bear thinking about,” said Mr Burden, 36, who started the centre from his family home in Worcester Park 10 years ago.

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