excellent women
FINDING SOMETHING POSITIVE IN TRAGEDY, OLIVIA CHAPPLE CREATES GREEN SPACES FOR REST AND REHABILITATION
Perhaps you remember the surreal and hideous headlines from the summer of 2011 about the expedition to the Arctic Circle that turned to tragedy when a school boy was killed by a polar bear. What you may not know is that, despite being utterly devastated at losing the eldest of her three boys, Horatio Chapple’s mother Olivia somehow gathered the strength to lay the foundations of a charitable organisation within days. It was the fulfilment of her son’s plans: to offer strangers refuge and rehabilitation in the form of green space. She describes setting it up as “a small thread of positivity when our world had exploded”.
As well as possessing the spirit of adventure, the 17-year old was known as a doctor in waiting among his fellow students. During a voluntary stint at Duke of Cornwall Spinal Treatment Centre in Salisbury, where his father David works as a surgeon, he came up with the idea of a therapeutic garden and diligently carried out questionnaires about patients’ needs and wishes. “Before Horatio left for the trip, the topic of conversation was the garden at the centre,” Olivia says. Just a fortnight after his death, friends, family and people moved by his story had donated more than £20,000 for the realisation of their son’s vision.
Olivia quit her 18-year career as a GP. “I simply knew that I would not be any good at supporting patients when I was in
such a profound state of grief.” From then on she devoted herself to running the charity and now admits to giving it her “every waking moment”. She soon discovered that creating a beautiful green space in a hospital environment is no walk in the park, with challenges such as infection control, let alone the logistics, but with the help of a talented team, Olivia opened the garden at Salisbury the following year (2012). “Everyone pulled together to make it happen. There was even a large mature hedge donated from the Chelsea Flower Show.”
Since then she has helped create four more horticultural havens at regional spinal units where even the bed-bound have the chance to escape the ward to be in an outdoor space, and those in a wheelchair can cultivate flowers, fruit and vegetables, have art therapy and enjoy music events. She isn’t stopping there, however – the seeds have been sown for five more gardens at hospitals across the country. “I’m hugely grateful to everyone who supports the charity – it’s their generosity that is improving the lives of patients and their families facing very difficult times.”
“Setting up the garden was a small thread of positivity when our world had exploded”