Dad and daughter sow seeds of happiness for staff on Royal Lancaster Infirmary's Covid-19 wards

'Lawn Ranger' Chris Dickson said his nine-year-old daughter Maisy came up with the idea of raising money to buy treats for the hospital staff treating Covid-19 patients.

Chris's wife Sharon works on one of the coronavirus wards at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary.

He said: "Seeing how much it affected my wife during the peak of the pandemic, my daughter Maisy came up with the idea to raise some money so we can treat the staff on the ward to whatever they want to drink and a box of chocolates each.

"All the staff have worked their socks off in hot conditions for long shifts; I hope and I'm sure it will go down nicely with them!

"I personally will raise a glass to all the fantastic work they did during difficult times.

"We tirelessly sowed over 1,600 seeds, of which 1,300 germinated. We sold a massive 1,300 plants in the end.

"It was such a success, as people couldn't go to garden centres around the area as they were closed due to the lockdown.

"It really got the community talking and we even made good friends with our neighbours a few doors down that we had previously never spoken to."

It was such a success that Chris has decided he will do the same thing for CancerCare next year as they supported him through seven years battling with cancer.

Chris said: "I have a lot to thank the NHS for as I underwent a lifesaving operation to eliminate my bladder cancer for good.

"Without the NHS Blackburn trust's intervention who knows where I would have been today, so it was the right thing to do to help celebrate how vital our NHS is."