Abbots Langley Methodist Church
Magazine
September 2007

HOSPICE OF ST FRANCIS

Macmillan Cancer Support is proud to be working together with the Hospice of St Francis to make this new hospice development, and especially the wonderful healing garden, a reality for the local community. The Healing Garden has been made possible through a generous donation from Macmillan Cancer Support. As part of the Macmillan Cancer Support partnership with the hospice they are also funding the new consultant in Palliative Medicine at the hospice, Dr Sharon Chadwick.

As one of the garden volunteers, on Friday 13 th July Roger Flint was privileged to join with members of staff, patients and supporters of the hospice together with representatives of Macmillan Cancer Support for the formal opening of the Macmillan Healing Garden .

The design for the Macmillan Healing Garden was donated by David Stevens, eleven times Chelsea Gold Medal winner. It is an oriental design and has a beautiful water feature, pathways and calming planting as well as forty-four tonnes of gneiss boulders from Inverness . This garden will bring a huge amount of pleasure to patients, their families and importantly to the wider community. It will provide a healing space for patients, a welcome refuge for friends and relatives and a calming place for staff and volunteers.

The rest of the hospice gardens are taking shape and all this could not have been possible without the gardening volunteers. They cleared the site at the beginning, then grew, propagated and planted 5,000 plants in the formal gardens immediately around the hospice building. Their work carries on as they complete the planting and continue to tend the finished gardens.