Acid attack update: How M readers gave Ella back the will to live; The young Russian whose tragic story we published five months ago remains in hospital - but the generosity of strangers a continent away has inspired her.

Our report about Russian beauty queen Ella Kondratiuk broke the hearts of M readers when it ran in our 28 April issue.

Ella, now 19, had acid hurled in her face in a brutal mafia attack ordered by a local gangster whom she'd refused to marry.

She'd been tipped as a future Miss Russia, but must now undergo years of painful surgery in the hope that she can regain her sight - and restore the skin on her face and shoulders, which was eaten almost to the bone by the sulphuric acid.

Shocked and horrified, M readers sent in more than pounds 10,000 to help pay for Ella's medical treatment, moving Ella and her mother, Tamara, who has barely left her hospital bedside since the attack last year, to tears.

`I'm so grateful to all your readers who wrote such kind letters,' says Ella. `I can't find words to express my thanks.'

She says the knowledge of the support she has in Britain has given her the strength to keep fighting to recover - even though she knows she is likely to be scarred for life.

`I know I must overcome the difficulties and believe in a good future. I've had so many letters. I'm delighted to know that people far away can understand my pain.'

Ella is having all the letters read to her, and is dictating replies to as many as she can. But she asks

you to forgive her if she doesn't manage to reply to everyone.

`There are so many kind people in the world, many more than bad and angry ones,' she says.

It was a twisted, angry, small-time mafia godfather, Ruben Grigoryan, who ordered the attack on Ella as she strolled from her house to the beach, to top up her tan.

Her crime? To have turned him down when he demanded she marry him, though they'd never even met. He was used to getting what he wanted. And what he wanted was a trophy bride almost 20 years his junior.

In hospital, preparing for yet another operation, Ella cannot talk about Grigoryan because she becomes distraught and upset. But she is pleased that a few weeks ago he was finally arrested in the far north of Russia, some 1,370 miles from her home in Sochi by the Black Sea. The five-strong gang he ordered to arrange the attack has also been arrested.

When police asked him why he destroyed this beautiful girl with acid, Grigoryan sneered, `She was one of those haughty girls. She thought that one day she could replace Claudia Schiffer.'

This is a man so cruel that his first wife, whom he kidnapped before forcing her to marry him, almost died from beatings and starvation.

`That he's been arrested shows God exists,' says Tamara. `I told Ella that we can sleep easily now. He wanted to marry her - well, he should see her now. Because of that beast her best years will pass in hospital.'

But Ella is determined to look to the future, not the past. `I want to start living a normal life,' she says. `I am moving towards it, day by day, but I know there is a long way to go.

`At first, I could only lie down - now I can walk. My legs get tired but at least I can walk with my mum.

`Recently, we left hospital and went to the countryside. That was so nice. I can also get up the steps to the plane when I visit my home in Sochi.'

Ten months after the attack, on 2 September last year, the acid is still eating at Ella's eyes and there are doubts that she will see again. She is even contemplating experimental surgery, which is very risky.

Until now, Ella has felt unable to speak in detail about her ordeal. But, overwhelmed by the response from M readers, she decided to tell more about the horrifying attack, which happened outside the gates of the school she had left the year before.

`I wasn't blinded immediately,' she says. `When the man who threw the acid ran away, I felt it flowing down my body and I opened my eyes. I looked around and I felt like I was in murky water. "Get inside the school," I told myself. I ran as fast as I could, clinging to the walls to guide me. But it was agony.

`I couldn't understand why teachers who had taught me didn't know me. Nor why I couldn't see them. I could only hear their voices. I had to tell them my name before they realised who I was. I couldn't imagine what had happened to me, what was hurting and how or why. Minute by minute, I thought, "OK, something is wrong, but the doctors will help me, soon I'll open my eyes and go back home." But it didn't happen.'

Over the next two weeks, Ella had hallucinations. One recurring image was of her face being scraped with sharp wire. `I also remember wanting to stand up all the time. In the end, nurses had to tie me to the bed - it was after the first operation, when my burned skin was removed and I could have hurt myself.

`I remember doctors saying, "She's got such long legs, we'll find enough skin if we have to do new grafts."

`I was weak for so long because I couldn't eat. My throat and stomach hurt so much.' The acid had penetrated there, too, but fortunately there was no long-term damage.

Her right eye, the side on which she was attacked, is beyond repair. But the visual nerve in her left eye survived, and there is hope that she might regain some sight. Her corneas were replaced but the operation failed and had to be repeated.

`Her weight fell to around 5st,' says Tamara, weeping as she recalls the worst of many painful moments. `I looked at something long and thin lying on the bed and thought, "Oh, God, is this my daughter?"

`Then I heard her voice - it was so low, it seemed to be coming from the ceiling or from heaven - and the voice said, "Mummy, I love you..."

Ella goes on, `The first operation was so painful. Afterwards, I remember saying, "Do what you want, but no more surgery." I couldn't begin to imagine how many more operations I'd have to endure.'

The initial surgery, to remove the burned skin from her face, replacing it with skin from her legs, took place five days after the attack. `We think of the day of the operation as Ella's other birthday,' says Tamara. `The doctors told me: if she wakes up after this, she'll live. And she woke up that day.'

Despite still being in pain, Ella thinks of others. She has written to another girl who was attacked in Moscow.

`It's so hard to be in darkness all the time. But I'm lucky that before the attack I had a chance to see. I can't imagine how people who are blind from birth manage.'

So far she has had more than a dozen operations. `Every hour I have treatment. I have to wear special compresses to make my scars softer.'

But Ella and her mother face some hard decisions. Moscow's most famous eye clinic has refused to deal with Ella, because her scars were caused by acid and they don't treat chemical injuries. `We were told the best treatment is in Germany or the USA,' says Tamara. `We can forget America. We'd need pounds 400,000. For us, it's impossible. Germany is more realistic but still costs more than we have. Or maybe we'll cooperate with a Russian surgeon who did the first-ever eye transplant recently.'

This surgery is highly controversial, although it may be Ella's only chance to see again. Incredibly, one doctor has said it might be better if Ella remains blind, perhaps believing she would be upset by seeing her scars.

`He's wrong,' says Tamara, who is determined Ella will get her sight back, as well as her dignity and her life. `We will also do something about her scars. She has to feel she's a normal person rather than having people turn their heads away when they see her.'

If you would like to help, send cheques payable to The Ella Kondratiuk Fund to PO Box 7294, c/o M, The Mirror, 22nd Floor, One Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London E14 5DG