A GAMING addict who turned his life around after joining a community group has won a digital award.

Jason Smith, from Leigh, has been awarded the Duke of York’s Inspiring Digital Enterprise Award (iDEA).

IDEA allow people of all ages to develop their digital knowledge and gain badges after completing interactive modules.

The 47-year-old lived in his bedroom at his mum’s house for eight years with gaming taking up 18 hours of his day at the height of his addiction.

With the help of Jobcentre Plus, he was referred to the Leigh-based community group, Joining Communities, to put a plan together for him.

He has since achieved a Level 3 Award in Education and Training, Level 2 Maths Functional Skills and is now running his own digital devices learner programme called My Tech and Me.

He is also in the process of completing an online Level 2 Mental Health Awareness court with Wigan and Leigh College.

Joining Communities, which has benefited from Wigan Council’s The Deal for Communities Investment Fund has helped Jason with the iDEA scheme.

Jason said: “iDEA is a fantastic tool to help introduce people of all ages to digital technology”.

The local authority has recently won the Digital Leaders 100 award in the Digital Skills or Inclusion Initiative of the Year’ category after introducing the iDEA scheme to the borough.

The council was chosen to roll it out last year which has led to more than 1,000 people achieving more than 13,500 badges and 300 people collecting their bronze award.

Cllr Nazia Rehman, cabinet member for resources, finance and transformation at the council, said: “Jason is a great example of how digital can have a hugely positive impact on a person’s life and open doors to opportunities they may never have had without the iDEA scheme.”

“A ‘Wigan badge’ has even been developed, allowing us to track residents taking part.”

Learners can attain their iDEA silver award this year before being given the chance to go for gold in 2019.

For more information about iDEA visit wigan.gov.uk/idea.