More than £2,000 has been raised for two kennels to be built in Folkestone to save Bulgarian dogs who have had a cruel start to life.

The idea was created by dog-lover and professional groomer Leanne Walsh, who has adopted five of her own dogs at her Alkham Valley home.

Miss Walsh, 24, will start to receive two at a time, most of whom have been subject to severe neglect, by October where she will begin the rehoming process.

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She is working in partnership with a Bulgarian rescue centre run by a family from Stockport called Rudozem Street Dog Rescue.

The rescue centre takes them in first before their journey to Kent.

VIDEO: Leanne Walsh has raised more than £2,000.

She claims that dogs in Bulgaria and Romania are treated like vermin, with many abandoned at roadsides.

The money for the kennels has been donated by the public and has been raised through the organisation of several small scale events.

It will cover the construction of the kennels that will be based on her private land.

The former Pent Valley student has had a love for dogs since she was a child, and first started looking into how they are treated in Romania and Bulgaria about four years ago.

She said: “Even when I was little we’d had dogs in the family and it was silly things, like we’d go on holiday abroad, it could be anywhere, but there would be street dogs.

“You would see me running, with no fear, into a pack of street dogs and hugging them, it has just been in me forever.”

Miss Walsh has also lended a hand to rescuing and rehoming abandoned dogs in this country.

Her five dogs which live with her have all been rescued from different parts of the UK, but it was golden Labrador Sasha that first inspired her to help other hounds find their happy every after.

“I was 16 and Sasha was on a local selling site and she was used for breeding at a puppy farm,”she said.

“She started the whole lot, all of my rescuing is down to her and how she made me feel at the time.

“We saved each other really.”

Miss Walsh is going back to Bulgaria at the end of this month for the third time this year to offer her voluntary services - and as part of the kennel set up.

She believes that education is key to show people exactly what happens to these pets, who in this country are often considered part of the family.

Miss Walsh said: “The way they treat them on the streets is just awful.

“I first set off to Romania in January 2014 and we were bringing 15 dogs back that already had foster or adoptive homes waiting.

“I feel like I can help those types of dogs just by simply loving them and rehabilitating them.

“I will foster two dogs at a time who need that extra bit of help and that one-on-one time.”