She won this award by competing with 1,700 other new inventions presented from 80 countries. New inventions such as aircraft, robots, rockets etc produced spending large sums of money were presented y others bat the competition. Sanju had spent only around 1500 rupees to produce her equipment. Many countries felicitated her after her victory.
She said that she wanted to produce the equipment when she saw that her father was climbing staircases with great difficulty after an accident. She has one younger brother who is in year five. Her mother is a housewife and her father is doing masonry work. She had obtained 2 As, 2 Bs, 2 Cs and three simple passes at her Ordinary Level Examination. Her aim is becoming a lawyer one day. It is greatly appreciated if someone or an organization help with my education, she added.
T.D. Yasaratne, the teacher who teaches the subject 'New Inventions' at Bomiriya Madya Maha Vidyalaya had assisted and guided her to produce the equipment. He had already sent ten other school children for various International competitions and in 1996 one such student won an award (one of eight awards) for an improved bucket presented at an International competition held in New Delhi and another two students won awards (two first places) for a computer mouse operated from the two legs presented at a competition held in Taiwan in 2010. Mr. Yasaratne thanked the Sri Lanka Inventors Commission and the Institute of Engineers, Sri Lanka.