Purr-ty good effort

WORLD-FAMOUS Huddersfield railway station cat, Felix, has raised £15,000 for the Samaritans through the sales of her calendar.

The website even crashed when the calendar went on sale, such was the popularity.

Felix made headlines when she was given the official title, Senior Pest Controller for TransPennine Express (TPE) in February last year.

Her 2017 charity calendar was a response to popular demand from her 100,000 Facebook friends, and never one to shy away from the limelight, the famous feline couldn’t turn down the pressure to become a charity pin-up for 2017.

All 1,000 of the initial print run sold out in just 18 hours, with orders from all over the globe including Japan, Australia, Bulgaria and the USA. The re-print of a further 1,000 has now sold out too.

All profits are going to the Samaritans branch in Huddersfield.

Andrew McClements, TPE’s spokesperson for Felix, said: “We knew Felix was popular but we didn’t know she could break the internet! We’ve now raised a staggering £15,000 for the Huddersfield Samaritans, who do amazing work, especially at this time year when people can feel especially low.”

Christine Pickavance, director of Huddersfield Samaritans, said: “The Huddersfield Branch of Samaritans are very grateful to TPE for donating all profits from the Felix calendar to our organisation. Samaritans provides a 24-hour service for those in distress and all of our listeners are volunteers who believe in the value of our work and receive no financial remuneration. Donations such as this help to take the stress out of providing the right kind of support for our callers. We are always here to listen.”

The calendar isn’t the only charity that Felix has been involved with since her rise to fame.

In August 2016 she took part in a charity “5k walk”, raising more than £5,000 for Fairy Bricks, who donate Lego to sick children in hospital. And recently she donated all of her Christmas gifts from her generous fans to Yorkshire Cat Rescue.

In recognition of all her hard work, Felix has been awarded the very first Cat of the British Empire (CBE) honour. Up against other famous moggies including A Street Cat Named Bob, Felix came away the winner in the public vote run by @TreasuryMog, the unofficial page of the HM Treasury cat, Gladstone.