Dave Roderick is working towards a qualification to enable him to set up his own business in North Devon teaching bush craft and outdoor skills.

He is already an outdoor pursuits instructor but following a spell working in London he returned to North Devon five years ago and now has to re-qualify.

He is currently working towards his mountain leadership certificate which includes wilderness survival skills and hopes to be qualified by February.

But there is no way he could have done it as quickly without support from the Vivian Moon Foundation.

A grant of £300 from the foundation has paid for about half the costs of training and assessment.

Dave of Westward Ho! explained: "It is fair to say I would not have been able to do it in this time scale. It would have been another two or three years before I could think of doing it.

"So they have made a significant difference."

He is working towards the 'summer time' part of the mountain leadership certificate which will qualify him to take groups on any British mountain range. However, most of his work will be based on Dartmoor and Exmoor .

He explained: "I am in the process of trying to find somebody with a lot of woodland so that I can train people in basic skills."

His sessions will be open to people who enjoy the great out doors and who would benefit from knowing how to cope if things went wrong.

Quintin Early (above) described the foundation's grant aid as a real life line in helping him to become established in his own business.

A knee injury forced him to take early retirement from the Royal Marines after 22 years and to re-think his career options.

He decided to branch out on his own as a plumbing and heating engineer and embarked on re-training at college. To further help him on his way The North Devon Enterprise Agency put him in touch with a number of grant-making bodies including the Vivian Moon Foundation.

He sent in an application form and received a grant of £300 from the foundation which he used to buy books and testing equipment for his work, things he could not afford to buy on his own.

Quintin, who runs Holsworthy Plumbing and Heating, said: " As far as I was concerned the grant was a lifeline."