A Cumbrian woman who launched a successful business selling sheep's wool as home insulation has been awarded a �20,000 prize.

Christine Armstrong, from near Penrith, Cumbria, has taken top prize in the Women Mean Business Awards, presented in front of 250 business leaders in London.

Ms Armstrong, 40, started her firm, Second Nature, in 1999 after using wool to insulate her own home.

She found that nobody had developed the idea for sale in the UK, so refined her product using the unwanted wool from local hill sheep into her product "Thermafleece".

'Remarkable figure'

The firm now lists the National Trust among its customers.

She has been praised for bringing diversity to an area that suffered economically in last year's foot-and-mouth outbreak.

Harris Jones, chief executive officer of the award's sponsor, T-Mobile, said she was a "remarkable figure".

Presenting the awards, Martin Townsend, editor of the Sunday Express, which co-sponsored the scheme, described Thermafleece as an "inspiring" story.

The awards were launched in May this year to celebrate the growing number of women - now thought to be more than one million - running their own firms.