Gardner had a career in the City before journalism

Gardner, OBE, is to receive the McWhirter Foundation award on Wednesday for moral and physical courage.

He spent eight months in hospital and had 12 operations after the shooting by militants in Riyadh in June 2004. Cameraman Simon Cumbers was killed.

He returned to work in a wheelchair in April, and was made an OBE this month.

The BBC security correspondent said on Wednesday it was a "great honour" to be recognised by an organisation that celebrated "the moral and physical courage of ordinary people that might otherwise go unnoticed".

Far-reaching reports

The McWhirter Foundation was established in memory of Ross McWhirter, who was shot by the IRA in 1975.

Gardner and his colleague were shot at point-blank range in the 2004 attack, which he has described as an "execution".

The married father-of-two, from London, has reported from the Balkans, South America and all over the Arab world.

He studied Arabic and Islamic Studies at Exeter University and worked as an investment banker before switching to journalism in 1995.