A NOT for profit centre near Hatherleigh, which provides meaningful activities for people with learning difficulties, is appealing for the return of its beloved fibreglass pink elephant.

Elizabeth the elephant, pictured right, was apparently stolen sometime over the past week from her rightful place beside the A386 near Hatherleigh.

Laura Feaver, from Made-Well, said everyone at the centre was upset about the strange disappearance of Elizabeth, originally made for a fundraising Bollywood ball in the Made-Well workshop at West Fishleigh Farm.

‘She is a real landmark,’ she said. ‘We just want to say to whoever has taken her “bring her back”. We are not going to press charges, we just want her back where she belongs. 'She is on a plinth, which is really heavy, and we are pretty sure that a telehander has been used to take her because she is so heavy. And you can see the tyre marks.’

Elizabeth was commissioned by the Hatherleigh-based Pink Ladies group, which raises funds for breast cancer research. Made of Plaster of Paris by attendees at the centre, she has more recently been given a makeover to make her weatherproof, with a coating of fibreglass and painted pink in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Over the past year, she has become a familiar sight to motorists whizzing along the A386.