A HEDGEHOG and his friends have moved into a children’s ward after a pupil put pen to paper and came up with a winning prickly portrait.

Harry the Hedgehog was originally drawn by Leah Sims as a piece of GCSE graphics homework at Charles Darwin School, Jail Lane, Biggin Hill.

But the illustration did not stop there because her graphics teacher entered it into a competition to design child friendly characters for a hospital trust.

And now more than six months of hard work, Leah’s designs of the hedgehog, a woodpecker, a fox, a badger and a mouse, have moved in to the ward at Tunbridge Wells Hospital.

She said: “I have thoroughly enjoyed the experience and am extremely grateful to everyone involved in bringing my characters to life and to the art and design department at Charles Darwin School which has supported me the whole way.”

The 14-year-old had meetings with the artist Paul Gurney and the hospital’s art director to talk about her initial ideas.

She then visited the ward to discuss different scenarios for the woodland creatures and went to Mr Gurney’s studio to see how the computer images were produced using her designs as a base.

The pair kept exchanging ideas by email until the designs were finalised and ready for printing.

Leah’s graphics teacher Laura Pacifico said: “We are extremely proud of Leah’s achievement and very grateful to the hospital trust for giving her this fantastic opportunity to learn first-hand how a design is developed.”

There are also plans to make lapel pins of the teenager’s designs as well as a colouring book which will be given to each child admitted to the ward.