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TOPSOIL donation will help injured service personnel at DMRC Stanford Hall
Mon 9 September 2019
(Andy Wright, HighGround Therapeutic Gardens Manager, and Jane Taylor, Horticultural Therapist, with some of the 30 bags of HortLoam planting topsoil donated by British Sugar TOPSOIL)
British Sugar TOPSOIL has donated 30 bulk bags of its HortLoam premier planting soil to the charity HighGround so that injured service personnel admitted to the new Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre at Stanford Hall, north east of Loughborough, can benefit from horticultural therapy to aid their rehabilitation. The topsoil is being used in the therapeutic garden as part of the charity’s ‘Roots to Recovery’ initiative.
The DMRC at Stanford Hall helps four distinct groups:
- Neuro – those with head injuries and stroke sufferers;
- Complex trauma – amputees and those with complicated fractures;
- Force generation – skeletal conditions;
- Specialist rehab – mental health sufferers and those with chronic pain.
(Two of the oak planters filled with HortLoam, enabling service men and women in recovery to carry out horticultural tasks as part of their individual rehabilitation programmes)
Working with clinical staff, the construction team and many of the charity’s supporters, the HighGround team at Stanford Hall have been creating the horticultural therapy unit, which includes a number of raised oak planting beds varying in depth from 1m down to 0.5m to cater for those in wheelchairs and for amputees. Filled with British Sugar TOPSOIL’s HortLoam planting soil, the majority of planters will grow a range of veg, including beans, beetroot, lettuce, herbs and leeks. The planter in the walled garden will be a Cottage Garden planted with lupins, asters and hollyhocks.
Guided by the occupational therapists and physios, Andy Wright, HighGround Therapeutic Gardens Manager, and Jane Taylor, Horticultural Therapist, select tasks for each patient that meet their specific recovery needs. If they need to build strength to stand they are given gardening tasks that require them to stand; if they need to get their hands or fingers working again then Andy and Jane will give them tasks such as seed planting or thinning.
Following a visit to Stanford Hall to see the incredible work being done there, National TOPSOIL Manager Andy Spetch said: “British Sugar TOPSOIL is proud and honoured to have been able to support the work of the charity HighGround to help in the rehabilitation of the men and women who suffer life-changing injuries in the service of their country. DMRC Stanford Hall is a beacon of hope for so many and we are so pleased to be able to play a small part in their recovery.”