THREE-and-a-half years after falling in love with the elephants of Thailand, South Woodford girl Katherine Conner has finally achieved her ambition of getting her elephant sanctuary up and running. Here she talks to reporter Charlie Stong about the successes of packing her trunk and leaving the South Woodford circus to achieve her dream.

IT has been a magnificent year for Katherine Conner and her elephants in Thailand.

In April Katherine returned to Baan Tuek, the village where she has since been building Boon Lott's Elephant Sanctuary - a sanctuary opened in honour of baby elephant Babar (Boon Lott), Katherine's first rescued elephant who sadly died two years ago.

Guardian readers' hearts were touched in the summer of 2003 when Katherine appealed for help in saving Babar, a badly injured elephant who lost both his back legs and was provided with, thanks to readers, the world's first elephant wheelchair.

But, after Babar passed away, Katherine made it her personal mission to help orphaned elephants, as well as those used on the streets of Thailand by beggars, and decided to build the sanctuary.

Katherine's has been an amazing example of just what human beings can achieve although she has needed to devote every inch of her life to the project in recent years to achieve her goal.

Katherine said: "This time last year I was frantically fundraising, doing everything I possibly could - from standing at the train stations in the pouring rain with my buckets, to jumble sales.

"I was raising money and awareness to help the elephants of Thailand. I wanted to raise enough funds to build the sanctuary.

"It has been a tough, not to mention muddy road, but we have done it.

"The sanctuary is home to four happy and healthy elephants.

"We have Pang Tong (Bon Lott's mother) who was saved from a life of begging on the streets, Seedor Yai, who was rescued from a similar fate last year, Somai, our grand old bull who suffered severe burns from being trapped in an horrific forest fire, and the newest addition to our family - our baby, Little Lom."

Katherine and her fellow sanctuary workers first came across Little Lom in June this year. She was thin, exhausted, filthy dirty and had several untreated and infected wounds.

Katherine said: "She was being badly bullied by her owners and forced to walk the dirty city streets for hours on end."

Little Lom was just one of the hundreds of elephant babies that are still suffering like this in Thailand, and sadly, the scenario is becoming more and more common.

Katherine said: "It is dangerous for the animals and in just a few years could kill the baby elephant population in Thailand if nothing is done to stop this cruelty today.

"Thanks to the never ending support from the Guardian and its devoted readers, we were able to save Little Lom from such a sad existence that would have inevitably killed her.

"Little Lom is now a strong and fat elephant who spends her days playing with her surrogate mother Pang Tong and, sometimes, when I watch the two of them together, I forget that they have only known each other for five months.

"Thanks to Pang Ton, Little Lom is quickly discovering how to be an elephant - something she didn't know how to be until she arrived at Boon Lott's Elephant Sanctuary.

"We were able to save Little Lom but our work is not done. We, as a global community, must do something to save the other babies who are being forced to endure a life of misery.

"If we don't save the babies of today, there will be no elephants of tomorrow - that's a fact.

"Thank you to everyone who has made a donation to help the elephants and, on behalf of Seedor Yai, Somai, Pang Tong and our beautiful Little Lom, Merry Christmas from us all here at Boon Lott's Elephant sanctuary."

l If you would like to donate to the sanctuary, cheques can be made payable to Boon Lott's Elephant Sanctuary, c/o Katherine Conner, 45 Fullers Road, South Woodford, London E18 2QB.

Alternatively you can now also donate online, at www.blesele.com