Heartbeat: Cash windfall for new sensory garden at Rowley Regis Hospital

March 28, 2019

A new sensory garden at Rowley Regis Hospital needs green-fingered volunteers to make it a reality after an award of £9,600 from the Big Lottery Fund.

The grant awarded to Your Trust Charity will create an open, user-friendly space based around calmness, reflection and tranquillity. It will be ideal for dementia patients, those with learning disabilities and their carers, families and friends who visit them at the hospital and use its facilities.

The Big Lottery Fund grant will be part match-funded with £2,500 from Your Trust Charity. It is anticipated that the project will take approximately nine to twelve months to complete with work scheduled to start this spring.

Sarah Whitcombe, Senior Sister on the Eliza Tinsley Ward at Rowley Regis Hospital, said:  “We are delighted by this award and it will really encourage our patients to enjoy an outside space whilst socialising with each other.

“For those using the new garden and from a wider community perspective, we believe that it will create a sense of community ownership.

“We’d like to start the project quickly and are calling out for budding gardeners and volunteers who can do what’s needed to get it up and running. This will involve a few hours a month on the garden site at Rowley Regis Hospital and giving input at project steering meetings.”

For more information about how to join the sensory garden project, please contact SWBH’s Your Trust Charity via Amanda Winwood on 0121 507 4847.