PUB customers and friends sprang a heartwarming surprise for wheelchair-user Karen Thomas while she was away for her first holiday in a year.

When Karen and partner, Steve Harvey, returned from Cuba, they found the garden of their house transformed by a Ground Force-style team from the Red Lion, Witney.

The dozen or so regulars hatched their good deed over drinks at the Corn Street pub because they knew Karen, the former bar manageress, loved her garden, but is now unable to look after it. Over a year ago, she was found unconscious in the bathroom of her home in Apley Way, Witney, with a brain haemorrhage. She is still undergoing rehab treatment, while Steve has had to give up his job to care for her full-time.

Lee Bevan, pub manager, said: "They had wanted to tidy up their garden so that in the summer they could hold barbecues and have friends round, but because of what happened, it became a huge task."

While the couple were away, Karen's best friend, Carrie Lewis, took the role of head foreman, and, with the aid of a few beers, she gathered together a 'Ground Force' team.

They included a bricklayer and keen gardener Cliff Grundy, not just to tidy, but to plant new flowers and lay a new path and walls.

Locals at the Red Lion and The Windrush pubs chipped in to raise more than £300 to buy materials and plants.

Lee said: "Having been in the hospitality trade for more than 15 years, it takes a lot to make me aware of just how great people can be. There are some fantastic individuals in Witney, who I can proudly say drink in my pub.

"Sometimes the smallest things make the biggest difference. Everyone knows Karen is a very lovely woman, and very brave, and this was a great gesture."

Paul Wakefield, Red Lion owner, said: "Both worked for me at the time. Steve rang home one night and could not get hold of Karen. He went to the house and found her laid on the bathroom floor. She was in hospital unconscious for some while. She's been through hell with it.

"Although she's disabled, she comes in here once or twice a week."

Karen, 45, finds talking difficult, but managed a few words to thank the team: "The garden is now very beautiful.

"They are such good friends."

Steve said that the haemorrhage was on one side of her brain, and that she had afterwards been diagnosed with a virus.

He added: "Hopefully she will get better. We went away to Cuba for two weeks, a well-earned rest, and it was real surprise when we got back."

The couple have given their personal thanks to all the team.

The 'Ground Force' 12 were: Carrie Lewis, Carol and Barry Pattison, John Hare, Robin Agg, Cliff Grundy, Steve Paris, Phil Kelly, Paul Kelly, Rhonda Royal, Seamus Kneafsey, and Elaine Whelan.