I recently had the absolute pleasure of visiting the staff, clients and gardens at Thrive’s Beech Hill Centre, near Reading in Berkshire.
For those who haven’t heard of Thrive, they are a truly inspirational charity who change lives through the power of gardening and they will forever have a place very close to my heart.
Bringing about positive changes in the lives of people living with disabilities or ill health, or who are isolated, disadvantaged or vulnerable.
I had been wanting to visit their Reading centre for over a year, especially after first meeting Alyson at the Garden Press Event in 2017, followed by interviewing Faith and Amanda from the countrywide team alongside their client created Silver Guilt winning garden at BBC Gardeners World Live last year too. Catch up on this chat here.
So when I finally visited recently I was desperate to see first hand the amazing work they do and the facilities all the donations go towards supporting.
Most importantly for me though, I wanted to find out how people can go about requesting help through Thrive and also how others, like myself can volunteer and raise vital funds to support the incredible work.
As some of you will know, in my past I struggled heavily with anxiety, panic attacks and mental health worries, so much so that I wouldn’t leave my front door. Since then I have always said that if I had known about Thrive at that time or a doctor had suggested their work to me over the usual therapy methods I would have grabbed the opportunity with both hands, running out the door begging for help. Crying, shaking, whatever it took, I would of gone.
Which is why now I want to do everything I can to help not only the charity but also make sure everyone that supports me on here is aware of the mental and physical support they can provide.
The day was full of so much laughter, inspiration and insight, all of which you can watch now in my video of the day.
Hearing from the clients about how passionate they are for gardening and getting completely stuck in filled me with biggest of smiles. The whole place and everyone there leaves you beaming permanently, it’s infectious too.
I would absolutely love you to click on the thumbnail below to watch the video, which includes wonderful chats with all the team and clients, and views of the many different garden spaces.
As well as valuable advice about supporting the charity, online business training, volunteering, gaining qualifications and most importantly getting help yourself.
It is super easy to request help too, you don’t even need a doctor referral!
My one ask……If you can relate in any way, if this blog or video gave you a smile or you just want to support the charity and their cause then I would be forever grateful if you would share this blog everywhere you can.
Feel free to tag Thrive and myself in too so we can be sure to say THANK YOU!
Have a wonderful week ahead x