MARY Hutton is the saviour of more than 600 asian bears that could have ended up on menus across the world.

Her Free the Bears fund is living proof of the difference that one person can make.

In just seven years the Fund has helped free 600 asian bears on the streets of India and given them a new lease of life.

At the start of it all she had the support of 130,000 other Australian animal lovers and the Fund was born with every cent of the $2000 needed to rescue each bear coming from the charity.

“I don’t really know what part of me [the story of the bears] touched, but it did move something deep within me,” Hutton told The Age ”I didn’t know this was happening. I didn’t realise bears were in farms having bile taken, I thought they were happily playing in the jungle. It annoyed me so much to think I didn’t know.”

“I had no idea about sun bears, and I asked ‘what do they do to bears in the restaurant trade?’ ” Hutton says. “When I found out they cut their paws off, I was horrified; so that’s really when it all started.”