Why we built a garden at Harefield Hospital. The Harefield Healing Garden is a garden for everyone; providing a calm and therapeutic space, for patients, visitors, and for staff.
In the autumn and winter of 2020 we built a garden at Harefield Hospital. The ‘Harefield Healing Garden’ provides sanctuary and immersion in nature; a natural and accessible place away from the wards, a place for patients to meet with family and friends, a place for relatives to while away time during those fraught hours waiting for a loved one in theatre, for outpatients to spend time whilst waiting for appointments, and for staff to take a well-earned break.
This garden is funded entirely by the generosity of people like you. Any amount, no matter how small, helps to ensure that The Healing Garden will always be there for those who need it.
We need to raise money every year to cover the cost of plants, bulbs, seeds and trees, for professional help, and tools and materials, to keep the garden growing and evolving and in top condition.
Can you help, please? Even a regular monthly donation for the price of a cup of coffee would make a real difference 🌱
Rosie & Catherine Co-Founders
Fundraise for
the garden
Volunteer in
the garden
Corporate
volunteers
Biodiversity
in the garden
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Our personal reasons for building a garden
Rosie Pope OBE, Founder
My son Will received a new heart in 2013 when he was 20. He spent many weeks at Harefield when first diagnosed, at 16 years old, with dilated cardiomyopathy, and more than 6 months there aged 20. He had a VAD (Ventricular Assist Device) implanted in 2009 but was back at Harefield on the urgent transplant list four years later.
We saw Harefield all year round. In Spring, Summer and Autumn, when possible, Will would sit on a bench overlooking the road. In winter the nurses pushed him from ITU to the front doors of the hospital to see and feel the snow.
Will suffered from ITU syndrome and took many months to recover after his transplant. On a cold crisp day in February, as he was too weak to get into a car, I bumped him along the uneven pavement to the Old Orchard, in a borrowed wheelchair supported by pillows, pulling him
Catherine Perry, Co-Founder
My dad spent 12 days at Harefield following a sudden an unexpected heart attack on his regular morning run. He was airlifted to Harefield and spent most of those 12 days in an induced coma, before sadly passing away. My experience with Dad at Harefield, really opened my eyes to the incredible job health professionals do every day (and night!) so relentlessly, and it made me want to give something back.
My children would have loved to have visited their grandad, had he recovered; a garden would have provided a much nicer setting for this, away from the wards. Mum and I would have benefitted from having access to a garden to just sit and reflect; as would the staff, who were visibly affected by the loss of their patient.
These are my reasons for volunteering to create the Healing Garden; a garden that can help heal people, in many different ways, for decades and even generations to come.
Rosie has held the healing garden in her heart ever since her son Will was in hospital, and I was honoured to be invited to come on board to help to bring her dream into fruition.
Catherine Perry,
Co-Founder
My dad spent 12 days at Harefield following a sudden an unexpected heart attack on his regular morning run. He was airlifted to Harefield and spent most of those 12 days in an induced coma, before sadly passing away. My experience with Dad at Harefield, really opened my eyes to the incredible job health professionals do every day (and night!) so relentlessly, and it made me want to give something back.
My children would have loved to have visited their grandad, had he recovered; a garden would have provided a much nicer setting for this, away from the wards. Mum and I would have benefitted from having access to a garden to just sit and reflect; as would the staff, who were visibly affected by the loss of their patient.
These are my reasons for volunteering to create the Healing Garden; a garden that can help heal people, in many different ways, for decades and even generations to come.
Rosie has held the healing garden in her heart ever since her son Will was in hospital, and I was honoured to be invited to come on board to help to bring her dream into fruition.
Patients with access to nature:
√ Suffer fewer complications after surgery
√ Use less pain medication
√ Experience more positive feelings and fewer negative emotions
√ Patients with a garden view are discharged sooner than those who looked out on an inanimate brick wall
Roger Ulrich “Effects of Gardens on Health Outcomes”
Garden Survey
Please help us understand what the Healing Garden means to you. This survey will ask how you use the garden and the impact it has. This helps us when applying for funding to maintain and develop the garden. We want the garden to be as inclusive as possible and appeal to all.
This garden is funded entirely by the generosity of people like you. Any amount, no matter how great or small, helps to ensure that The Healing Garden will always be there for those who need it.
We need to raise money every year to cover the cost of plants, bulbs, seeds and trees, for professional help, and tools and materials, to keep the garden growing and evolving and in top condition.
All funds raised to go to the Harefield Healing Garden; a restricted appeal of the
Thank you to our generous supporters
