Sanders was born in
Kolkata. Her mother died when she was three. In the 1920s she worked in the slums of
Bermondsey. During the
Second World War, she joined the
London Ambulance Service. Sanders was the first leader of the Cornish political party
Mebyon Kernow (MK), founded by herself in January 1951. Sanders felt that
Cornish culture was being destroyed. She went on to lead the party for four years. Sanders was the also the first person to put MK policies to the electorate when she won a seat on
Camborne–Redruth Urban District Council in 1953. She was succeeded as Chairman of MK by Major Cecil Beer in 1957. Sanders also founded and served as editor for
New Cornwall, a monthly magazine effectively serving as the voice of Mebyon Kernow. She was interested in the governing structure of the
Isle of Man as a potential model for Cornwall and sympathized with other Celtic nationalist and separatist movements. She became a member of
Gorseth Kernow under the Bardic name of
Maghteth Boudycca ('Daughter of Boudicca') at Trethevy Quoit in 1953. She organised residential courses in the
Cornish language, where
Richard Gendall and
Tony Snell met and wrote
poetry in the language. She married Guy Sanders, a sculptor, in 1959. Eventually, Sanders and Hawkins were able to educate residents about the cats and how to improve their living conditions. Some strays were killed due to health issues and others were
neutered with the consent of Venetian authorities. Sanders and Hawkins were the first people in Italy to use the process of
trap-neuter-return (TNR) to control cat populations. Her husband, Guy, became a licensed
gondolier to help raise money for Dingo. Sanders also founded the Cornwall Christian Fellowship for Animals and the Cornwall Cat Rescue Group. For her work in Venice she was made a
Knight of St Mark. When her husband died in 1985, she moved to
Haddenham. She worked on her
autobiography towards the end of her life and died on 14 June 1997. == Legacy ==