We can always find a way to help and we won't destroy any animal that has a quality of life' Margaret Gray is 630 - in dog years that is - which makes her human age of 90 sound small in comparison.

But 630 years is probably how long most people would take to achieve what this animal lover has accomplished to date.

Born in Scotland in 1916, Miss Gray spent her early years in Calcutta, where her father was a captain in the British Indian Steam Navigation Company. Her first pets were a squirrel and a Pomeranian dog, and on trips back to the UK, she delighted in making the ship's cat a resident of her dolls' house.

Back in Scotland, she worked as a physiotherapist at the Canadian Niobe Navy base, near Glasgow. After demobilisation, she came to Oxfordshire to work as a physio at Morris Motors, which led to jobs at the Wingfield Hospital and then at the Radcliffe Infirmary.

But, while easing human suffering was her day job, Miss Gray's love of helping animals took up almost every other waking hour.

Secretary for the RSPCA at Headington, she was greatly concerned at the lack of animal welfare in the city and decided to form a commitee of other like-minded individuals.

"We started the Oxfordshire Animal Sanctuary Society one night in June 1967, at member Elsie Jones's house in Five Mile Drive," she said. "We all put 10 shillings each on the table and from then on it was a constant fight to keep our heads above water."

In the very early days of the society there wasn't actually a 'sanctuary' - Miss Gray and the other founding members rescued stray animals and then paid for them to be cared for at local boarding kennels and catteries.

Then, during the great freeze of 1967/8, the Oxford Mail pubished a picture of Miss Gray feeding hay to hungry ponies on Port Meadow.

That picture was seen by Oxford resident, Miss Sybil Morley, who asked to meet Miss Gray and was so touched by her commitment to helping animals, she made gifts of £6,000, which paid for its own sanctuary.

"That really was the boost we needed," said Miss Gray. "And, if the truth be known, it was Miss Morley, the Oxford Mail's support and our bank manager, which would actually keep us afloat all those years."

But that wasn't the end of finiancial crises. In 1972, the sanctuary was weeks from having to close, but a rousing call for help from the Oxford Mail (and a little help from the bank manager) resulted in donations of £3,000.

"Ralph Brain, the news editor of the Mail had a lot to be thanked for," said Miss Gray. "Without the publicity he mustered, we would have definitely gone under."

Since the 70s, thousands of animals have found refuge at the sanctuary - and many at Miss Gray's home in Oxford too!

Some stay for a short time, others for longer, while some make a home there for the rest of their days - and, unlike other animal havens, the sanctuary has a strict 'no refusal' policy.

"Yesterday I had a call from a lady with four chipmunks - and even though I knew we couldn't take them, I found someone who could!" said Miss Gray.

"We can always find a way to help and we won't destroy any animal that has a quality of life."

Miss Gray's visits to the sanctuary have grown fewer recently because of arthritis, but the paperwork, ethos and driving force behind the sanctuary are very much down to her.

And last week she celebrated her birthday with a surprise party.

"It was fabulous," she said. "People are so kind. But I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the people of Oxfordshire who have supported us over the years."

She added: "I don't feel 90 and I thank God for that. Now I hope he'll give me as long as possible to carry on helping animals - because that's all I want to do."