Charity to build garden for spinal injury patients
Design for Horatio’s Garden North, Pollyanna WilkinsonA charity has unveiled plans to create a garden space for patients with spinal injuries, to help aid their recovery.
Horatio's Garden are set to begin work on an outdoor area and garden room at the James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough, for the use of those patients in the hospital's specialist department who typically need lengthy treatment.
The team hopes to develop "beautiful spaces" to help improve patients' physical and mental health as they recover.
It is the charity's ninth project, with founder Dr Olivia Chapple OBE highlighting the incredible impact previous projects have had on patients' psychological recovery.
National charity Horatio's Garden said they had raised more than two-thirds of the £1.4m they need to create the outdoor space at the Middlesbrough hospital, and expect to start building next January - with the garden projected to open to patients in Autumn 2026.
Redevelopment of the courtyard area will include the addition of a water feature and garden room, as well as a greenhouse where patients will be able to grow plants.
According to the charity, people with spinal injuries typically spend between three and nine months in hospital, and are 56% more likely to experience mental health problems, with the risk of suicide increasing fourfold.
Dr Chapple cited the tough psychological battle often experienced by people with spinal cord injuries to find something that "gives them hope" following life-changing injuries.
She said many such patients struggled to find "a reason to look to the future with positivity", especially when they were recuperating on a public ward, sometimes with little privacy,
"It's incredible the impact of these type of projects, getting involved with gardens - whether that's sitting in them, whether that's being in nature, whether that's having quiet conversations or gardening.
"It has a huge impact on patients, not only their physical rehabilitation but their psychological recovery as well."
Nicola Wilson MBE spent five months in the north-east spinal centre, following a fall at Badminton Horse Trials in May 2022 which left her initially paralysed from the neck down and unable to feel anything.
Wilson, who now acts as an ambassador for the charity, said the redeveloped outdoor space will make an enormous difference to patients, their families and staff,
"You're in a ward with six other people; those blue curtains don't offer you any privacy, so to be able to come out into the garden, just enjoy the flowers, the birds, [to] have that quiet time, is just invaluable."