A Nottinghamshire mum of two who went through a cancer scare has created a garden based on her traumatic experience for a prestigious flower show.

Lynn Heslop, 46, found a lump on her neck in 2009.

During an operation a further two lumps were discovered and Lynn had to wait a few months to find out that they were all benign.

During that three-month period, Lynn, who lives in East Markham with husband Mike, 64, and has two sons Alex, 23, and Tom, 19, decided to turn her life around.

She said: "I'd been working for a rubber company for 22 years and one day I just decided that I needed to start thinking about what I really wanted to do in life.

"My family has always had a background in gardening, I always remember my granddad growing lots of vegetables and flowers.

"I then sat in my own garden one day during that three months and really connected with its energy and its peacefulness and realised the healing power that nature has.

"Gardens can't cure you, but they can help you through the healing process and I firmly believe that."

After being given the all-clear, Lynn began studying a degree in horticulture at Lincoln's Riseholme College in September 2009.

After progressing through several stages of the course, Lynn graduated on April 8 this year as a Master of Horticulture.

Lynn at her graduation ceremony.

She said: "The graduation ceremony was at the Royal Horticultural Society's (RHS) headquarters in London and it was a really special day.

"There were around 19 of us who graduated and Mike and the boys were there to see it as well so it was just a fantastic day."

After first beginning her college course in 2009, Lynn then established her own gardening business, Dewberry Horticulture, in 2012.

Beginning as a general gardening service, Lynn has since focused the business on garden design by drawing on her passion for art.

Since beginning the venture, her goal has been to exhibit a garden at the RHS Chatsworth Flower Show - and her hopes materialised late last year.

She said: "I found out just before Christmas that I'd got into Chatsworth and I was thrilled, it was always such a goal of mine so it really was a dream come true."

L to R: Alex, Mike, Lynn and Tom at Lynn's graduation ceremony.

The process of getting a garden at Chatsworth is rigorous, with candidates submitting a proposed design which is then scrutinised by a panel of judges to determine whether it should be given a space at the show.

Lynn's garden design is entitled 'From Darkness To Light' to represent the journey she went through during her cancer scare.

She explained: "The garden has been designed to reflect the nature of the journey I went through and how it felt.

"It takes quite a long time to get over it when you have an experience that's traumatic and to try and move forward out of that dark time and regain your confidence.

"For me it was particularly hard keeping all of it from the kids, obviously they were much younger then so I didn't want to be telling them that their mum might have cancer so I was just living in hope for that three months, but it was difficult keeping it from them.

"But you can move on out of those dark times and turn a corner like I have done and that is what I'm trying to show with this garden."

The design of the garden Lynn will be exhibiting at RHS Chatsworth.

Lynn's design begins with a dark tunnel to represent the initial period in a traumatic journey, with holes in the tunnel to represent the "glimpses of hope and normality" that she says often come during this period.

As the garden progresses, the tunnel ends and the previously dark planting becomes gradually lighter, ending in a waterfall to represent what Lynn calls "the moment of relief" at the end of the journey.

Finally, in the centre of the design sits a table and two chairs to represent how talking to friends and family at the end of a traumatic journey can also help to get over the experience.

With the design complete and accepted by the judges to be displayed at the event, the big day itself is now looming.

Building work will start on May 22 and Lynn's contractors, East Markham-based R&M builders, will have two weeks to complete it.

After being viewed by judges, four medals are up for grabs for the best garden including gold, silver gilt, silver and bronze.

Following that, the garden will be open to the public at Chatsworth from the 5-9 June.

"In terms of preparation I'm working 24/7 at the minute, because obviously I've got my business side of things to keep up as well, but Mike is helping in terms of being the calming influence who gives me a glass of wine and tells me I've done enough for the day.

"After this, the goal is to get to the Chelsea flower show, but even if I was to win a medal at Chatsworth that would really be the icing on the cake of the journey I've been through to get to this stage."