A PHOTOGRAPHER who was on holiday in Sri Lanka when a devastating tsunami struck on Boxing Day ten years ago has dedicated her life to helping rebuild the shattered island.

Clare Allen Crook, 48, from Alderbury, is operations director of Rebuilding Sri Lanka, a charity she founded in the wake of the catastrophe which claimed 40,000 Sri Lankan lives.

As the tenth anniversary of the tragedy approaches, Clare spoke to the Journal about the charity’s achievements.

“It was just astonishing and we felt so incredibly grateful that we survived,” she said. “I think in the beginning you are just really glad you survived and you don’t really understand what motivates you apart from the reaction to seeing horrific destruction and loss of life.”

Clare, pictured above, said after the tsunami hit, she and a small group had stayed on to see how they could help people, sourcing food, medicine and other essentials.

“The infrastructure was gone, roads, railways, there was no petrol, nowhere to bury people, no way to identify people, burning piles of bodies,” she said.

“We walked through thousands of dead bodies; it was apocalyptic in those days.”

She explained how the dream of creating a countrywide network of education facilities had come to fruition and that last month the team had opened its ninth library in a former conflict zone on the northernmost point of the island.

“We just responded with our hearts,” she said. “If you really get in touch with each other you don’t need a language to understand that if someone’s afraid or hungry.”

Clare will mark the anniversary of the tragedy quietly, as she does every year. “I’m immensely proud of the people that work with us and deeply thankful to the people who have continued to give money for ten years,” she said.

The charity, which has raised £1.6million, now has nine educational facilities, serving 12,500 children, and feeds 5,000 children every day.

“We turn struggles into the strengths in our life,” said Clare. “As long as I live I will continue to dedicate my life to them.”

Everyone at the charity works for free and 97 per cent of the money it raises is spent on the ground in Sri Lanka.