THREE private gardens on a single Stockton street will be opened to fellow garden enthusiasts this Sunday to help raise cash for cancer charities.

It will be the third year that Glenn Sunman, 59, of Briarcroft, 27, Barnard Avenue, has opened his garden as part of the National Garden Scheme.

Mr Sunman lost his wife, Anne, to cancer in 2008, who was well-known in Stockton for running the Swallow Hotel and campaigning for the town through the Hoteliers Association.

After her death, and left with a young daughter, Mr Sunman let the garden become overgrown before, eventually, hiring horticulturalists Chris Eves and Karen Lewis to help him restore it in her memory.

He opened his third-of-an-acre garden to the public with a £3 entry fee in 2012 and 2013 and has raised about £470 each year.

This time two other gardens on the street will be opened at numbers ten and 22. One of the gardens will have Northumbrian pipers to add to the fun and the £3 entry fee will pay for entry to all three gardens.

Mr Sunman, a former ICI worker, said: “It’s a great scheme which raised the biggest fund-raiser for Marie Curie each year. I always joke it’s great for keen gardeners and nosy parkers.

"It’s great to have a chat about plants and gardening and there’s refreshments and plants for sale, all in a great cause.”