A former top Sixties model was today awarded £10,000 for outstanding work in animal welfare.
Celia Hammond runs the Sussex-based Celia Hammond Animal Trust, based in High Street, Wadhurst, near Crowborough.
The trust has established two low-cost clinics in London where people on benefit or low incomes can have their pets neutered.
So far, 73,000 animals have been vaccinated and more than 52,000 neutered, preventing the births of hundreds of thousands of unwanted puppies and kittens.
Ms Hammond turned her back on her successful modelling career and now spends 18 hours a day, seven days a week either in her clinics or rescuing and caring abandoned animals.
Jeanne Marchig, founder of the Marchig Animal Welfare Trust, said: "This incredible caring woman, working tirelessly for animals and giving little thought for herself, is in the front line of the fight to end animal suffering and abuse."
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