St John’s Hospice
Comfort in the outdoors
“I want nothing more than to once again smell the herbs and see butterflies fly past. Outside is a different world, you can close your eyes and imagine being in the countryside.”
These are the words of Riccardo, who attends the St John’s Hospice day centre in London. Currently, day centre patients like Riccardo only have access to a small outside space with old and uneven concrete paths, which make it inaccessible to many.
Our grant of £97,652 will help Riccardo’s wish for a tranquil greenspace to become a reality. The hospice is creating a new therapeutic garden with easy to use pathways, a seating area, water feature, as well as new hedges and raised planting – the perfect place for hospice patients and their families to connect with nature.
- Volunteers will help with the upkeep of St John’s Hospice’s new therapeutic garden, helping improve more people’s health and wellbeing across London.
- Over 4,500 people with long-term or life-limiting health conditions are cared for by St John’s Hospice every year.
- The medical and emotional support the hospice offers is free of charge to patients and their family members from seven North London boroughs.
Reducing anxiety and stress
Having this therapeutic garden will increase patients’ physical activity and help reduce their anxiety and stress. It can also improve mood, sleep, and pain management.
The new garden design will use recyclable materials as much as possible. New hedgerows and shrubs will help minimise pollution, capturing carbon from the busy road nearby. Native flowers in the new raised beds, along with bird feeders and insect houses, will help attract more wildlife to the garden, benefiting the surrounding environment as well as hospice patients, visitors and staff.
“This garden project strongly aligns with our aims to improve the health and wellbeing of Londoners and to support the development of more green spaces. We know that this garden will bring many benefits to people using hospice services and in the surrounding community.”
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