STAFF and students at East Durham College’s Houghall Campus are celebrating news that a lecturer and two students have made it through to compete at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show in the Florist of the Year.

Floristry lecturer Rebecca Hough, 29, from Peterlee, along with two of her students, Allan Raby, 50, from Thornaby, and Vicki Abbott, 26, from Hartlepool, made it onto the 16-strong shortlist and will now travel to London to complete against each other, as well as a number of professional florists, in a bid to be crowned champion at the world’s most prestigious flower show. The finalists must to create a floral throne for a spring wedding.

Rebecca, who has worked at the college for two years, said: “To have one person in the final that would have been amazing, but for three of us to make it through is truly astonishing.”

RHS Chelsea Flower Show takes place from May 22 to 26.