Just 30!

Gardening to help recovery from stroke and heart disease

Getting your life back after stroke or heart disease is a significant challenge. An important part of people’s recovery is building up their strength to help them overcome their physical challenges. Gardening at home is a good way of doing this and Thrive’s new programme, Just 30!, is now ready to give practical and helpful advice.

With funding from the Department of Health, and advice from The Stroke Association and British Heart Foundation, we have produced a guide to show people how just 30 minutes of gardening a day can help their recovery. Called gardening for hearts and minds, it has practical tips and ideas and a set of activity sheets which show the benefits of gardening jobs such as sowing seeds, planting containers, pruning and weeding.

Cath Rickhuss, Project Manager for Just 30!, comments: “The tips and advice in the guide will help people do the gardening themselves. By working through the different activities, they will become more confident and will feel they are starting to regain their independence. We have already run gardening workshops at stroke clubs and have had some very positive feedback.”

Here are comments from people who have tried some of the Just 30! gardening activities:

“…When I started I couldn’t move my hands or fingers, doing gardening gets your hands moving again”

“I think it’s one of the best ideas I’ve come across. Even if sitting in a wheelchair and can only use one hand, you still do something. Tip out a packet of seeds in a pot!”

Thrive’s gardening for hearts and minds guide will be distributed through stroke and heart rehabilitation units across England from April 2008. However, if you would like to know how gardening can help after stroke and with heart disease, call us on 0118 988 5688 or email the Information Service

(*Source: The Stroke Association and British Heart Foundation)