The region's leading bereavement charity is facing a cash crisis which it says is partly because of donors giving money to international disaster relief funds instead.

Birmingham Cruse Bereavement Care, which has 75 volunteers, is £7,000 in the red and treasurer David Evans has described its financial position as " desperately precarious".

Cruse's 75 volunteers provide one-to-one counselling to the bereaved, train other organisations on dealing with bereavement, and run selfhelp groups for people affected by suicide and the death of someone close.

To maintain its services - seeing about 1,000 clients a year - it needs £10,000, while to activate much-needed plans for growth an extra £20,000 a year is required.

The charity has been running for 27 years and about 60 per cent of its referrals come from GPs. Half of its funding comes from the NHS and the rest is met through voluntary contributions.

Angela Thomas, branch coordinator, said: "The situation is quite serious. Rent has increased and donations are down. Disasters happen and money goes that way. Those of us who are trying to survive are having trouble because donors who give year in, year out don't give us so much."

The number of people making use of bereavement services has increased by about ten per cent year on year, she said.

High-profile tragedies, like the London bombings, have also brought the pain of personal bereavement to the fore again.

"That's something else we've had to have in place," said Ms Thomas. "We've also developed a disaster response team in case something should happen in Birmingham."

Volunteers man the phones and carry out office work as well as offering counselling.

Ms Thomas said one of the ways they would try and meet the cash shortfall was by carrying out more paid-for training courses in places like care homes and hospices.

"Ordinarily people need just one session with a counsellor after being bereaved to reassure themselves they are not going mad," said Ms Thomas.

The manner of death and age of the bereaved often increased the amount of help required, she added.

The organisation needs an extra £20,000 to fund two new outposts in Kings Norton and Castle Vale. Cruse already has two existing sites in Erdington and Maypole.

"We are not going to go under because we've got 27 years of supporting people in Birmingham under our belt. But with more and more people coming in we are going to have to do a lot more fundraising to keep on an even keel," said Ms Thomas.

* Donations to Cruse Bereavement Care can be sent to King Edward Building, 205 Corporation St, Birmingham.