HORATIO’S Garden is a stunning garden in the hospital’s Duke of Cornwall Spinal Treatment Centre.

Designed by Cleve West, it opened in 2012 and has transformed patients’ hospital stays, providing a sanctuary in an oasis of beautiful plants for patients to enjoy even while in their hospital beds.

Olivia Chapple, chairman of trustees, said: “People who become paralysed come here to rehabilitate and learn how to live with their injury – they are not only in physical turmoil but also face very significant emotional and psychological challenges.

“As the catchment area is very wide, from the Scilly Isles to Hastings and up to the M4 corridor, patients are often a really long way away from their homes so it’s important to have a garden to go to.

“Being in the natural world is a direct contrast to the clinical environment of the ward which patients spend so long in. Horatio’s Garden is a safe and beautiful place for reflection for patients and their families and friends.

“Patients can go to it on their own or be assisted by volunteers who are trained in how to push wheelchairs and use a hospital bed mover.

“We design high maintenance gardens – they’re ever-changing so there are always new flowers and new things to enjoy.”

Run as a charity, Horatio’s Garden is looked after by a volunteer team, led by a head gardener. Others help run activities for patients and contribute to the uplifting atmosphere which permeates Horatio’s Garden.

The volunteers are an integral part of the success of the project.

Some volunteers have spinal injuries and young people can join as a ‘volunteen’.

The patient audits show that 95 per cent of patients feel the volunteers improve their feelings of happiness.

“We have all sorts of volunteers, from garden experts to people who don’t do gardening but are brilliant with chatting to patients and others who do the fundraising,” Olivia said.

“We have young volunteers who come from Bishop’s Wordsworth School up to those who are more experienced and able to help and support the patients.

“If patients come out in the garden, they always find a volunteer there, someone to chat to and who will make them a cup of tea, sit and be alongside them.

“Patients can take part in activities in the garden organised by the charity, including art therapy and music concerts.

“It’s a great team atmosphere, where strong relationships are built once patients have left the spinal unit, they come back to visit and see the volunteers. It’s an amazing, responsive environment as well as a place of natural beauty.”

Once a year, Horatio’s Garden holds a food and plant fair which helps raise the annual £25,000 funds to run the garden.

The garden, which costs £25,000 a year to run, has 50 registered volunteers, with 25 of those being actively engaged with what goes on in the garden regularly.

The garden and charity is named after Horatio Chapple – a schoolboy who wanted to be a doctor and volunteered himself at the spinal centre in Salisbury.

It was Horatio’s idea to create a garden and his research has shaped the garden designs and the charity’s aims. He died at the age of 17 when his camp was attacked by a polar bear while on expedition in Norway in 2011. Horatio’s experiences as a volunteer formed the ideas and philosophy of the charity’s aims and objectives – volunteers are vital to the project.

The charity aims to bring Horatio’s Gardens to all the UK’s 11 regional specialist spinal centres.

* For more details visit horatiosgarden.org.uk