GREEN-FINGERED volunteers are being sought to help make a new sensory garden a reality at Rowley Regis Hospital after an award of £9,600 from the Big Lottery Fund.

The grant to Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust’s 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 12 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.

"It will really encourage our patients to enjoy an outside space whilst also 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 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 to project steering meetings.”

For more information about how to join the sensory garden project, please call SWBH’s Your Trust Charity via Amanda Winwood on 0121 507 4847 or email Amanda.winwood@nhs.net