On your marks... get set... GROW!

We are thrilled to announce that two good friends of the charity Tom Hounsfield and Guy Petheram are separately taking on some serious endurance challenges in the next few months whilst fundraising for our charity

Fellow garden designer Guy Petheram who has championed GROW and its philosophy from the very start, is swimming 4km across Rutland Water on 11th August to raise money. Guy is also passionate about our plight and was shocked at the state of the gardens when visiting a close relation in Lincoln County hospital. As Guy says "Lincolnshire's hospitals need better gardens for patients and staff wellbeing".

To support Guy in his efforts visit his JustGiving page here.

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/guy-petheram

Keeping smiling Guy!

Tom Hounsfield, an endurance challenge veteran, is once again considering the London Marathon 2020. He ran it in 2018, the hottest ever, which caused him severe cramp. Facing this new challenge Tom decided to really test running in hot weather, so trained for and completed the extreme Marathon Des Sables dubbed "The Toughest Footrace on Earth"so we have every faith that he can achieve his goal!

Tom has said he will run for GROW .... so watch this space

Best of luck boys, we are all behind you.

GROW reaches its first target

First and foremost this is a blog to thank everyone who has been involved with the charity 'Gardens Restore our Wellbeing' so far. Over the last seven months you have helped us to raise over £7,000. Put together with an extraordinary donation of £9,500 from the League of Friends of Grantham Hospital, our grand total is now over £16,500, sufficient to create the first garden!

Our most recent 'Open Gardens' event was a huge success and raised a staggering £750! Thank you to all who came and donated their money, cakes and time: we couldn't have done it with out you.

In other news, we are now officially charity registered with The Charity Commission and our license with the NHS has been finalised. Work on the first garden at Ward 6 Grantham & District Hospital is due to start 22nd July.

Stay tuned for progress updates...

Singing for Sally

Last Saturday night people flocked to St Vincent’s Church Caythorpe to hear the Festival Singers with their conductor Stuart Freshney, pay tribute to one of their founding altos, the much loved Sally Kelway, who died very suddenly at the beginning of February. The audience of over 200 people were treated to some of Sally’s favourite pieces, from classic anthems like” Lead me Lord” by Samuel Wesley and “All in an April Evening” by Hugh Roberton to hits from Abba!

In deference to Sally’s love of Scotland, Paul Breslin played a typical ceilidh dance medley on his accordion and the Singers sang “The Skye Boat Song”.

Sally’s son Jack read the beautiful poem “Snowdrops” that he wrote for his mother’s thanksgiving service and the St Vincent’s Handbells, with whom Sally used to ring, performed two pieces.

Sally loved her gardening and was involved with the formation of GROW, so we were thrilled the Festival Singers chose us for any donations received. The audience was extremely generous and the staggering sum of £802.24 was raised. This will enable the first garden at Grantham hospital to start shortly and work to commence on the next project.

Thank you so much Festival Singers