The actress and campaigner Joanna Lumley is due to leave Nepal after a week-long trip which has seen her mobbed by crowds of Gurkha supporters.

Ms Lumley has been travelling with Gurkha Justice campaigner Peter Carroll, who started the campaign to win them UK settlement rights.

Ms Lumley has met Nepal's president and prime minister, both of whom thanked her for getting "justice" for Gurkhas.

On her arrival she was greeted with signs describing her as a "goddess".

Ms Lumley, whose father was a Gurkha officer, fronted a campaign for UK settlement rights for Gurkhas.

In May, the government said all retired Gurkha soldiers - originally from Nepal - with at least four years service in the British Army, could stay in the UK.

The actress is due to board a flight from Kathmandu to London on Saturday morning.

'Remain forever'

A part of their visit, Ms Lumley and her group have met the British ambassador to Nepal, Dr Andrew Hall, and laid a wreath at a war memorial near the embassy.

As part of her tour, Ms Lumley addressed an audience of Gurkha veterans at the capital Kathmandu's city hall.

On Tuesday, Ms Lumley visited Jhapa and Dharan to meet Gurkhas; on Wednesday the group met members of the Gurkha Welfare Trust charity; and on Thursday she met Gurkhas' widows.

On Friday, a popular tourist site in Nepal was renamed in honour Ms Lumley and her father.

Local people in Pokhara, 200km (124m) west of Kathmandu, have decided to change the name of Mattikhan Hill to Mattikhan Lumley View.

A speaker at a ceremony at the city hall said: "By this act, the spirit of the Lumley family will remain forever in the foothills of the Himalayas, the homeland of the Gurkhas."

Before leaving, she also visited Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha, and then returned to Kathmandu to visit orphans and homeless children.

Source: BBC News UK