My name is Tony, I’m 77 years old and I ran a health food shop for 23 years before retiring. I had several accidents to the top of my neck. I fell over while gardening a few times over two or three years, not hitting my head but the top of my back. Then one day I was walking to the high street and I just fell down to the ground and froze. I couldn’t move.
Luckily, a fire engine was going by and two people got out to help me. They called an ambulance, which took me off to the local hospital. After that I was transferred to a different hospital, where I spent about eight weeks before coming to the Midland Centre for Spinal Injuries at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital (RJAH).
I was taken off bed rest fairly soon into my stay in hospital and was able to move around in a wheelchair. Because I couldn’t use my left arm, I was given a power chair which allowed me to get around. I’ve had physio and my arm is better than it used to be, but it’s still not as good as I want it to be.
I started using Horatio’s Garden the first day I was in the RJAH. One of the nurses wheeled me around in a manual chair and I couldn’t believe how beautiful the garden was. That was early in the year, when the daffodils were out and the tulips were about to emerge.
Sometimes there are performances in the garden from talented musicians who have been invited in. Once it was a wonderful harpist, and we’ve also had guitarists and singers.
Alex, the Head Gardener, has also helped me to plant some seeds. I’ve got a little patch of carrots growing, and some onions. When I leave hospital, I’ll definitely remember growing my patch of vegetables, as well as how beautiful the whole garden is. It’s laid out so well and timed so beautifully for each season: you’ve got daffodils going into tulips, then from tulips into roses. It’s really gorgeous, all the colours and fragrances. It’s magic.
I’ve been given a provisional date to leave hospital, but that might change. I’ve got to have some operations and change some things about the house I’m moving into. I assume I’ll be in a wheelchair, but I do hope that at some stage I’ll be able to walk again.
The garden really is magic. It’s hard to believe it’s a hospital sometimes, because there are so many things going on. The food and the care you get in the hospital itself is also excellent. I can’t say how good it all is, it’s just wonderful.
Anybody who’s got a spinal injury, sometimes thinks ‘oh, why me?’, whereas you should be thinking ‘why not me?’. Don’t be afraid, because coming here will give you a tremendous number of benefits.
