A pet food bank is in the running to win a supermarket grant to help press on with its kind-hearted plans.

Noah's Ark Pet Aid was started by Bury friends Tracy Hulme, 50, and Lisa Rose, 46, in October last year.

Tracy said she had heard that people were even going without food to have enough money to spend on pet food.

She said: "We made some enquiries with the food banks, whether people were asking for pet foods, which they came back and said they were.

"We spoke to a couple of animal charities who were having animals surrendered to them because people could not afford to keep them at home and feed them.

"We just want to try and plug a gap.

"However, we're a very small cog in that book- we're hoping he's doing some good and helping people keep their pets at home rather than surrendering them."

The pet food bank is now in with a chance of winning £1,500 from a Tesco community grant.

Tracy said: "That would be massive and would enable us to continue with what we started in October last year.

"But often, when people contact us to access the service, we haven't exactly had what they're looking for.

"You might have contact from people who've got animals with specific dietary requirements. 

"The grant would enable us to buy the specialist food they might also need, which we've been working towards."

If Noah's Ark Pet Aid did win any money from the community grant scheme, they would use it to assemble animal healthcare packs and provide pet food.

The packs would include worming and flea treatments.

Tracy and Lisa have been working towards this but have so far been unable to do them as they are reliant on donations from the public. 

Tesco's head of community, Claire de Silva, said: "Tesco Community Grants help support good local causes like Noah's Ark Pet Aid and especially those projects supporting young people, those providing food, and local causes close to our colleagues' hearts."

Noah's Ark Pet Aid will be put forward along wide other charitable causes from the borough, and the public can vote for which cause should receive support.

The public can vote at Tesco stores across the borough.