Last week I was lucky enough to visit the Chelsea Flower Show in London, a high spot in anyone’s calendar and a “must” for gardeners or anyone who loves flowers, plants and trees.  It rained, but I wasn’t complaining, as I had my trusty bright yellow mac on, but drew the line at wellies!  No-one else seemed to mind either and many were dressed in bright summer frocks and shirts, looking very exotic themselves.

If you’ve never been, it really is worthwhile, but leave plenty of time to look round and make sure to wear comfy (and possibly waterproof) footwear.   I hadn’t been for years, since I lived in London in the 80’s and 90’s. It is in the lovely setting of the Royal Hospital in Chelsea, opened in 1692 and home to the community of the iconic Chelsea Pensioners in their famous red coats. There are nearly 300 pensioners living there, all veterans of the British Army.

What a place to retire to!

But this story is not of the Chelsea Pensioners, nor even the wonderful Flower Show.

I was the guest of a remarkable charity called “Horatio’s Garden”.

What the charity does is fund raise to build individually designed gardens on hospital sites that spinally injured patients can access and enjoy during their often very lengthy stays in hospital following injury.  Of course, everyone can use them, but they are specifically designed with those who have spinal injuries in mind, to help increase their well-being, physically and mentally, while on the long rehabilitation road.

Many of those with spinal injuries will have acquired their injuries outdoors, or from sporting injuries, so being cooped up inside for months on end, staring at a ceiling must be so frustrating.

But the story behind the charity is equally remarkable. Their website, https://www.horatiosgarden.org.uk/ tells of their history and how they came about.  Much of the following is taken from that.

The charity is named after Horatio Chapple, a schoolboy who wanted to be a doctor. His parents, Dr Olivia Chapple and Mr David Chapple FRCS were both doctors, with Mr Chapple being a spinal surgeon at Salisbury District Hospital.  Horatio volunteered there during his school holidays, in the Duke of Cornwall Spinal Treatment Centre.

He noticed the lack of outdoor space for patients and their families and the unit staff.  Supported by his parents and patients in the unit, decided to do something about it. He devised a questionnaire asking the patients what they would want in a garden. They have been described as “healing spaces”.

The first garden in Salisbury was designed by seven-time RHS Chelsea gold medal winner, Cleve West, who used Horatio’s original research as a starting point and opened in September 2012.

Following its enormous success, a nationwide charity was formed with the mission to create gardens in the ten outstanding UK spinal injury centres, each designed by a different leading landscape designer. In 2023, the charity won the ultimate accolade of Best Garden In Show at Chelsea.

Horatio himself was quite a character.  A talented scientist looking forward to studying medicine, he is described as a “great friend”, kind, highly motivated, dedicated and determined.

I say was, because in a totally tragic and almost unbelievable accident in 2011, Horatio died at the age of 17 while on a science trip with the British Exploring Society in Svalbard.  His camp was attacked by a polar bear and Horatio, acting with such courage, helped his friends to escape before losing his own life.

The charity has started work on its eighth garden at The Princess Royal Spinal Injuries Centre at Northern General Hospital in Sheffield, one year exactly since it began its life as the Best in Show winning garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show, supported by Project Giving Back. It was designed by Charlotte Harris and Hugo Bugg of Harris Bugg Studio https://www.harrisbugg.com/

It will be a beautiful, accessible and therapeutic place for people facing life-changing injuries and long stays in hospital, taken from the West Midlands to East Anglia, South Yorkshire to Lincolnshire.  It will open fully in 2025, built by Sheffield-based contractors RLX Construction and project managed by Gleeds.

Horatio’s Garden has 3 or 4 more planned over the next 8 years.  Each garden costs on average £1.7 million pounds to build and about £90,000.00 each year to maintain. It has many volunteers to help out, under the eye of an experienced Head Gardner.

The gardens are Horatio’s legacy; a symbol of his hope for making a difference to people’s lives for the better as a doctor and a memory of his short but positive life.

And thank you, Horatio, for my great Day Out!

By Brenda Gilligan.

If you want to donate to this worthwhile charity take a look here:  https://www.horatiosgarden.org.uk/donate/

Ringrose Law are members of the Spinal Injury Association  https://spinal.co.uk/ and the Brain Injury Group  https://www.braininjurygroup.co.uk/