A STOURBRIDGE animal lover picked up a prestigious award recently for her work as a volunteer elephant handler.

Megan Lawlor, 19, received the Volunteer of the Year award at the Aspinall Foundation's annual award ceremony.

The awards recognise the achievements of staff at Aspinall’s two Kent-based parks, Howletts and Port Lympne.

Bob O’Connor, Aspinall’s managing director, said: “Every year we hold a prestigious staff awards ceremony, to say thank you to all of our dedicated, hardworking staff and volunteers.

“Megan’s dedication, commitment and enthusiasm made her the obvious choice for Volunteer of the Year award.”

For Megan, the award is the final achievement of a year in which she has lived her dream by working with the largest African elephant herd in Europe.

The former Wolverley CE Secondary School pupil has always wanted to work with animals and after finishing her GCSEs she completed a two year BTEC in Animal Management at Halesowen College.

She followed up her college placement at the West Midland Safari Park, getting a full time seasonal contact as an assistant keeper of Meerkats and Lemurs.

Once the season was over, Megan took up a job in the Merry Hill centre, enabling her to save up enough money to apply for a six-month internship at Howletts where, after being selected from more than 100 applicants, she now works with seven others to maintain the 13 elephant herd.

Megan’s grandmother, Pauline Vaughan, said she is very proud of her granddaughter.

“It’s quite a prestigious position Megan is in as not many others from her course have gone on to work in their chosen field,” she said.

“For Megan to take an unpaid internship and move all the way to Kent shows how much love she has for her job.”