Gardener Alastair Kirkhope won the homeless charity Crisis’s top award at their Changing Lives Awards ceremony in London on Monday.

The 56-year-old was presented with his Barclays Achiever of the Year Award by bank boss John Varley.

He also won the Long-term Achiever category for overcoming homelessness, alcoholism and unemployment to set up his own thriving gardening business.

Now living in Edinburgh, Alastair spent 10 years on the booze after he lost his job as an agronomist in 1995.

Married with two daughters and two stepsons, he lost the family home in 2004 and then in 2006 his driver’s licence.

But he turned his life around: he has been sober for three years and now runs his own gardening business.

He said: “I had to get treatment or I was going to be dead.

“In 2005 I spent virtually all year in the Borders General Hospital getting patched up. I’d be home for a week and then in for another four weeks.”

He had a lot of falls while drunk and at one point he broke both his shoulders.

“I wasn’t really planning at that stage because I was just in hospital, out and drunk again. I knew I was on the slippery slope. Four years ago I was on a zimmer frame. I couldn’t walk.”

He never slept rough but found council accommodation in Kelso which he said was ‘horrendous’.

He said of homelessness: “When you come into these places to stay you just don’t know what’s ahead of you. You’re never in a stable flat.”

The lowest point was when Alastair lost his driver’s licence which he said was a huge blow and he realised he needed to stop drinking.

Through the Borders Counselling and Alcohol Service, Alastair got into a men’s addiction centre in Edinburgh. After seven months he wanted to leave and get on with his life. He was put in touch with a local charity, the Homeless Outreach Project, and got into a hostel.

Then he applied for and gained a grant of just £1,200 from Crisis Changing Lives to help set up his gardening business, needing money for waterproofs, a lawnmower, business cards and a computer.

“It gave me a bit of confidence to get it. It kicked off more than anything else. It makes my life easier having a computer. I remember finding it a bit difficult because I’d sort of made do and mend and then I had all this money to spend.”

His business is going well and Alastair is hoping to expand and go into new areas such as tree work and hedging, and to take on extra staff.

He was delighted to scoop the top honour and wants to pass on advice to help others.

Sharing his three top tips, Alastair said: “The most important thing about self-employment is to take any work you can find, however little you are bringing in it’s more than doing nothing. You are also talking to people to get leads.

“Secondly, use every source of help in the way of agencies that you possibly can. It may not give you a financial leg-up but you are never too old to think you know everything.