A GARDENER from Torrington has scooped a prestigious national award.

Colin Porter, who runs his own landscape design business and is also head gardener at the North Devon Hospice, was nominated for the Horticulture Week magazine professional gardener of the year award.

On Tuesday, November 3 Colin was invited to the awards ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London where he discovered he had won.

He said: "It was unexpected to say the least but I am thrilled. I'm proud that my work makes a difference to patients and families at the hospice.

"A patient recently said 'I can't walk far, but it makes such a difference to be outside in the gardens as I find a sense of peace here'.

"To me, that means the world because that's what the hospice is here to do and I'm proud to be a part of that."

Colin has masterminded several recent additions at Deer Park including the retreat garden and the community orchard which was planted to mark 25 years of North Devon Hospice.