After the award-winning Sea Sanctuary missed out on the top spot in the health category of this year's National Lottery Awards, the Cornish charity is thanking the public for their support.

Sea Sanctuary, which offers unique sea-based mental health support to people from across the south west, was just pipped to Best Health Project by North West Blood Bikes.

Now the charity is reflecting on what being a finalist has meant in terms of public support and recognition of the work it does.

Founder Joe Sabien said: "Coming second in national awards like this is a huge achievement for us and fantastic recognition of the project and the public's appreciation of it. All the finalists would have made worthy winners and we would like to congratulate everyone involved.

"Clearly the public voted for us in large numbers and, irrespective of the result, we remain very grateful for the support of those who have gone online and picked up the phone to vote for us."

The National Lottery Awards is the annual search for the nation's favourite Lottery-funded projects, and over 600 projects were nominated this year.

Second placed Sea Sanctuary is a mental health charity which takes therapy out of the office and onto the water, and was the first of its kind in Europe waters.