A TV celebrity is to design a new garden for the children's unit at Airedale Hospital.

Katie Rushworth has agreed to transform for free a grassed area backing onto the ward.

The new, child-friendly garden will have a hide-and-seek theme.

It is intended to have a different view from each of the ward windows so regular patients can enjoy various scenes.

Katie, who presents the popular ITV show Love Your Garden with Alan Titchmarsh, said she was delighted to be supporting the initiative.

Her daughter, nine-year-old Polly, was born at the Steeton hospital.

"Designing a garden for the children's ward at Airedale was a no brainer for me," said Katie, who is originally from Baildon.

"It's a total privilege to be able to provide something that may help the children and young adults that visit the ward, as well as giving back to my local community."

She has also taken on fundraising for the project, and launched a Just Giving page – justgiving.com/crowdfunding/childrenshospitalgarden – to cover costs such as materials.

A Keighley landscaper, Gareth Clarke, and his team have offered to donate their time and labour to the venture.

Amy Kitching, paediatric research nurse at Airedale NHS Foundation Trust, said the garden idea was sparked when a young boy commented on how he'd enjoyed watching rabbits running around on the plot.

"The area's a bit overgrown so it got us thinking how nice would it be if we could do something with it," she said.

"We tweeted Katie Rushworth and she came to visit us and agreed to design the garden for us.

"It was great to meet her. We were amazed, as she was thanking us for asking her to be involved!"

Nicola Thompson, the children's ward manager, welcomed the project and paid tribute to the backing given.

She said: "We are very, very grateful to Katie and Gareth for their fantastic support.

"Normally you would design the garden first and then say this is what you want. But because there is no budget we are doing it the other way around, asking what people are willing to give us and then Katie can design around that."

Design work is due to start later this autumn.

Anyone wishing to donate is asked to visit the Just Giving page.