A FORMER school teacher from Cockermouth appeared on the BBC show Gardener’s World on Friday evening — and hopes her appearance will inspire others to ‘never give up’.

Angela Johnson 51, who taught at Nelson Thomlinson School in Wigton, was forced into medical retirement after a double stroke six-and-a-half years ago.

The stroke left Angela partially sighted — with no vision in one eye and only keyhole sight in the other.

She believes that her garden has been key in helping her rehabilitation.

Angela said: “My garden really has been rehabilitation for me really to help me get through and over it (the stroke) as I say I am limited, but I get round it and I do it in little spurts because I still do get tired. The stroke is still there at the end of the day, but it’s a case of making it so its a nice life to live in really.”

Gardeners World asked viewers to send in videos of them in their garden last year when the country was placed into lockdown due to Covid-19.

Angela and her husband were watching the show one evening when she said to him ‘you know we could do a film’ thinking that Angela would be able to inspire other partially sighted people to get outside into their gardens.

The couple sent their tape in last year and received an email four months ago from the show to ask the former maths teacher whether she could make more clips to show people how she worked within her garden.

Speaking about gardening after her stroke, Angela said: “You see I love smells, everything I put in that garden has got to have smells because obviously I can’t see them clearly like I used to.

“I’ve been putting a lot of scented things into the garden and everybody walks past our garden where we are ate, so people like to smell it as well as me.

“It’s just been a godsend, I didn’t think at one point I would ever get back into the garden, you know, when I was trying to get back from the stroke to make it so that I had a reasonable life.”

Angela will share her tips on the show to try and help others who may be struggling with eyesight problems or rehabilitating from a stroke.

Talking about how she works, she said: “I just do little and often, I cant go out to do it when the sun is out because when the sun is out I’m completely blind.

“I think it helps if you know your surroundings, but one of the main things I work with is kitchen scissors, believe it or not! I do a lot with my kitchen scissors because I can feel where I working with them.

“Often I am working very close when I’m doing things.”

Angela hopes that the programme will inspire others.