The Charities Aid Foundation emergency coronavirus fund has been paused after it was inundated with requests totalling more than £40m.

The fund was launched by the charity last month with an initial £5m, with the view to dishing out grants worth £10,000 to small charities struggling with the effects of the pandemic.

But CAF announced it 'paused' the fund on 5 April after it received more than 5,000 applications totalling £40m in just one week.

Since inception it has granted more than £1m to 256 charities across the UK, CAF said.

The organisation hopes to grow the fund further to help meet the huge demand witnessed so far.

CAF head of charity advisory programmes Monica Brown said: “We have been humbled by the charities out there that are doing everything they can to continue to operate at such a tough time.

"We are very proud to be able to offer some help to charities working so hard on behalf of people, causes and communities across the UK.

“I am pleased to see that we have been able to get more than £1 million in help to charities in a matter of weeks and it is our plan to grow this fund so that we will be in a position to help more small organisations to continue to deliver vital services in the weeks and months ahead.”

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