At a time when people are struggling with their health and wellbeing, we can be thankful for the green care of gardens and nature. As a proven health intervention, their life changing benefits support us physically, mentally and socially.
Yet, despite the health benefits, not everyone has easy access to gardens, gardening and nature activities. Time, space, lack of knowledge and cost can prevent people from doing gardening activities. And, while therapeutic gardening is especially beneficial to people experiencing ill-health, disabilities and disadvantage, there are additional barriers for these groups of people which make gardening more challenging.
People like Arun who found the path to recovery through gardening…
At only 29, Arun uses a walking aid and struggles to make a cup of tea. He lives with ankylosing spondylitis (AS), a painful and disabling inflammatory musculoskeletal condition that causes his spine to fuse and severely impacts mobility. His health deteriorated more when treatment for AS caused a brain injury and a rare neurological condition that mimics dementia, affecting his memory, cognition and ability to process everyday tasks.
In hospital Arun found relief outside in the gardens. His neurologist understood the therapeutic value of nature which paved the way for his recovery. Once home, Arun joined our Life Changers programme.
When you’ve been ill for such a long time, it’s hard to figure out a way forward, Thrive offers that path and helped me to rebuild all the skills I needed to succeed and take on the world again.
Gardening has helped to restore Arun’s health. When his condition flares up, time in the garden offers an immediate remedy.
Arun’s story is one of many, where every day we see the impact of therapeutic gardening for people attending our gardens where they receive tailored support and guidance.
To support more people like Arun, we are taking part in a Christmas fundraising challenge…
The Big Give Christmas Challenge is the UK’s biggest collaborative fundraising campaign championing charitable organisations with seven-days of match funding.
For one week only, every donation made will be even more magical as it will be worth double. Starting at midday on Giving Tuesday 2nd December to midday on 9th December, online donations to Thrive’s Big Give page will be generously doubled by our match funders – The Leisure and Outdoor Furniture Association (LOFA) and The Balcombe Charitable Trust.
Fundraising Manager, Edmund Jackson, says: “We are creating a future where people with ill health, disability or disadvantage experience the life changing benefits of gardening and nature. The Big Give Christmas Challenge is the biggest fundraiser of the year for us. Our target of £25,000 will help us to increase the number of gardening programmes we deliver, offer more training courses and invest more in our Get Gardening information. If you can, please give this week to double the magic of your donation, helping us to transform more lives through gardening.
