Green-fingered great-gran Dena Murphy thought she was getting a helping hand from Corrie stars Jennie McAlpine and Antony Cotton when they turned up at her allotment in their wellies.
Wise-cracking Dena, 91, set them straight to work, showing them how to properly dig up her leeks.
But in fact the sneaky pair were actually hiding a Pride of Britain award amongst the leeks in her wheelbarrow.
The pensioner burst into tears as they revealed the award, saying: “I am so thrilled. Thrilled barely covers it, actually. I can’t believe it. I never expected this.”
Jennie told Dena, as the supergran tearfully clasped her award to her chest: “I just wish I could hug you! Sorry we tricked you. For so many years you’ve done so many amazing things for this community.”
Jokingly, Dena told the pair during their socially-distanced surprise: “You deserve a clout in the ear!”
The moment is one of the highlights of the Daily Mirror Pride of Britain Awards 2020, in partnership with TSB, which will be screened on Sunday at 9pm on ITV.
Dena, from Moston in Manchester, has won the TSB Community Hero Award for her work helping young offenders get their lives back on track at her beautiful community allotment.
She’s helped rehabilitate more than 300 ex-offenders by teaching them new gardening skills as they complete their community service orders on her colourful urban patch with a difference.
Dena, who has been running the community scheme in Moston for 19 years, says: “When I first started this garden, I really needed some help.
"It was quite difficult persuading people to help me and that is how we ended up starting the scheme, with what someone once referred to as ‘naughty boys’. But I do not like that term. Everyone and anyone can be helped.
“This can completely transform their lives. It makes them see things totally differently and gives them a purpose. And some of them do still keep in touch with me.
“One time, I got a message from one of the lads we helped, saying: “Dena, thank you for my life.’ By coming here, they realise that suddenly they can turn their lives around.”
Dena says she has seen some of the young people who have come through her allotment reoffend - but they have never been disrespectful to her.
“They know that if they ever reoffend, they will never be welcome back here,” she says. “But I think that works as an incentive.”
Dena has forged such strong relationships with some of the former criminals she has helped, some of them still come over every Saturday to help her out with the lunch club - which has been put on hold due to the pandemic.
One ex-offender sends her a card every Christmas with a straight line drawn inside to symbolise the way she’s straightened him out.
The man, called Stephen, says she’s changed his life. “If Dena was my grandma” he says, “then my life would never have gone wrong in the first place.”
As well as helping young offenders, Dena is the driving force behind charity Nephra Good Neighbours, which helps to reduce isolation and loneliness in older people - something she says is all the more important as we face the impact of Covid-19.
The project, which Dena chairs, delivered more than 100 ‘meals on wheels’ every week throughout the pandemic.
And even at the age of 91, she’s determined to continue her three hours a day of work on the allotment, which has seen her win a prestigious Royal Horticultural Society gold medal.
“It keeps me young,” she smiles. “But I am an awkward character! I think that’s what keeps me going. They know never to give me a back-word and they know that if they swear in front of me, they’re told: ‘Please don’t do that.’
“I can’t believe I am 92 this year. The garden is my legacy.”
The supergran grows 23 different types of fresh fruit and veg, including onions, courgettes and carrots, in her allotment, which provides a weekly three-course lunch for around 50 penionsers - that’s 6,000 meals per year for the people of Moston.
The former nurse also offers takeaway service delivery meals to elderly people who are housebound, which has been especially appreciated during the pandemic, making marmalade and jam from her pears and plums.
And she advises the local council on how to get elderly people eating healthier.
Antony and Jennie are understandably impressed with Dena’s achievements after a day’s hard work on her allotment.
“The world needs more people like Dena,” says Antony. “Everyone should be more Dena! She is a shining example of what a community leader should be.”
Jennie adds: “If you knew someone in trouble, you would want them to encounter Dena.
“She doesn’t think she is any way special, and that’s what makes her special. She just does it to help her community, she doesn’t do it for awards like this.”
Last year, Dena won a TSB Community Partner Award at the Pride of Manchester ceremony. But she never expected to receive the national gong.
“I am bewildered,” she says. “This is unbelievable. It is the last thing I expected.”
She really is a force of nature.
- Don’t miss the Daily Mirror Pride of Britain Awards 2020, in partnership with TSB, on Sunday, 9pm, ITV and repeated on Monday at 10.45pm.
