Hospital awarded therapeutic roof garden

Aberdeen Royal Infirmary has been gifted the gold award winning, Royal Bank of Canada Blue Water Roof Garden, from the RHS 2013 Chelsea Flower Show. It is being redesigned and will be installed on a first floor roof above the new entrance to the Emergency Department. The garden will make it possible for seriously ill and long term patients to have access to an outside green space, to aid there recovery, whether walking, in a wheelchair or a bed.

Karen Darke, an ARI Therapeutic Roof Garden Ambassador, injured her spinal cord in a fall from rocks near Aberdeen and was paralysed from the chest down. A key turning point in her recovery began, three months later, on the day she asked to be taken outside in her bed and was able to appreciate the changing sky, the fresh air and the trees: “That day transformed my journey forward helping me to think not about what I could not do but what I could”. She has since become a Paralympic silver medalist.

The garden is being installed and will be maintained by charitable giving and the appeal has raised £407,000 of the £700,000 needed. Some of the appeal’s team will be at Woodhill House, outside the main canteen, on 25 September to give an up date on the therapeutic roof garden’s progress and raise funds through a raffle.. Tickets cost £5 for a book of 5 or £1 per ticket.

Learn more about the project including

viewing the short promotional film with Karen or e-mail nhsg.ariroofgarden@nhs.net for more information.