THE founder trustee of the Swindon Hindu Temple and Cultural Centre has won a Pride of Swindon award.

Neetu Bhardwaj has been honoured for her tireless work to bring the town's Hindu and Indian communities together for more than six years.

Plus, she has supplied free hot meals to homeless people at Christmas for the last three years, worked with elderly people in hospices and care homes.

She organised fundraising events for the Rotary International Jaipur Limb project and Nepal Earthquake Relief, amongst others.

Ms Bhardwaj has worked to improve the mental and physical well-being of people by organising and coordinating free yoga and meditation sessions, CPR training, a breast cancer awareness workshop, talks on dementia and mental health, and helping with a running club for women.

She has been instrumental in organising several charitable activities in Swindon, like distributing food and clothes, organising health and wellbeing activities, social groups and arts sessions.

Neetu was one of the temple's core team members who started a community library that is run solely by community volunteers.