A woman who helped set up a citizenship school has been crowned as mum of the year in a national competition.

Ranu Mehta-Radia, 56, from Pinner, won the prize as part of the Tesco Mum of the Year award for her work founding the Sai Scool of Harrow, based at Shaftesbury High School.

She set up the Saturday school nearly 20 years ago to help bring together Hindu children from across the borough.

The school then became a charity and started the Sai Citizens’ programme for the classes in the school to adopt a charity from the area.

Mrs Mehta-Radia said: “Initially, we funded it ourselves, literally dipping into our grocery shopping money until donations began to come in.”

“The teaching of citizenship and human values for character building is a core part of the school’s curriculum.

“Our ethos centres on respect, love and non-violence. We want our pupils to contribute back to the country that has done so much for them and feel a sense of pride in being British.

“We support a computer club for special needs children and a local hospice, as well as nationwide charities like Age UK.

"We collected toys for prison play areas, planted trees for Woodlands Trust and provide food annually at the local Remembrance Day parade, to name a few.”

She will be awarded with the Enterprising Mum Award at a ceremony at The Savoy hotel in central London on Sunday March 23.