We would like to warmly welcome Isaac Hadfield to the Horatio’s Garden team, who will be spending the summer with as one of our new Research Interns. Isaac wrote the short piece below by way to introduce himself and to share his reasons for wanting to work with the charity.

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Hi, I’m Isaac, and I’m joining Ruxi as a summer intern here at Horatio’s Garden. During my A Levels I suffered from a spinal infection which left me bed bound for a number of months, and over that time I was on a ward with little access to the outside world. When I was finally able to go outside in a wheelchair, experiencing the natural beauty of the park made a huge difference to my mental wellbeing and physical recovery as well. Interning with Horatio’s Garden is therefore particularly rewarding and important for me personally as an opportunity to help spinal patients access a natural environment however severe their injuries. I’ve now just come to the end of my second year studying Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the University of Oxford, and the internship also provides a firm foundation for my future endeavours. The experience of data analysis and report writing, as well as working with people, should serve me well as I pursue a career in the charity or public sector.

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We are grateful to Isaac for sharing his remarkable story with us and are very much looking forward to hearing all about his experiences over the next six weeks. The immensely valuable report he will be creating with Ruxi, who is the other member of this year’s research team, offers us the chance to hear back from as many patients, visitors and staff as possible throughout all our gardens.