Dear friends and anyone reading my story,

I am fundraising for Harefield Healing Garden for Royal Brompton & Harefield Hospitals Charity because I believe in the healing power of nature. 

Harefield is the largest specialist heart and lung centre in the UK and they’re raising funds to create a healing garden.

I’ve been working as professional gardener and landscaper for 15 years. My entire adult life I’ve been working with trees, plants and nature.
While studying horticulture I realised how important our connection is to nature. I experienced the positive effects of plants on myself and on others. And it’s well known that nature aids recovery and can improve our mental and physical states. Gardens have been used in the healing process since ancient Greece, with the first medical practice at the temple and gardens at Epidaurus. Yet it was only in 1984 that psychologist Roger Ulrich first documented the evidence for the healing effect of gardens.

Since that time there has been an overwhelming weight of diverse and holistic evidence that shows how important gardens are for our health and wellbeing. In 2016 The Kings Fund published their comprehensive report on Gardens in Health, noting: “Gardens are the elephant outside the room, providing multiple pathways to health gain, recovery and solace, through achievement, activity and social context”. 

Please sponsor me to run the Victoria Park Half Marathon and play a role in creating a healing garden to benefit patients, staff and visitors at Harefield. 

Thank you!