Irene's very prickly love affair
A kind-hearted animal lover and her team of volunteers are running an incredible home-grown service to help one of our best-loved animals.
Irene Thomson set up Lowton Hedgehog Rescue around three years ago and now cares for up to 25 of the prickly creatures in her shed at any one time.
The organisation, which currently has around 10 hedgehogs staying, takes animals which are in need of a little loving care and rehabilitates them before releasing them back into the wild.
Pictured above are Rosemary Miller, Irene Thomson who runs the centre, and Liz Darcy with Queenie the hedgehog.