Charity to create new sensory garden for children's respite centre in Scarborough

The WellChild Helping Hands project will take place at Willows Lull which provides respite services for children with life-limiting health conditions or complex needs, and support for their families.

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Respite is a vital resource for families caring for a child with complex needs and facilities such as Willows Lull are a source of support for care at home and can even help to avoid unnecessary hospital admissions.

The centre has a large front garden which the Helping Hands project plan to transform into an accessible, sensory space to be used by the children and families the centre supports.

It will also act as a hub for the community and network of volunteers involved in running and funding the centre.

Project organisers say the garden will improve life for many children with serious illness and complex needs and will be at the heart of a community which is already working hard to support families who are most in need of a helping hand.

WellChild will be undertaking the three day transformation from July 9 to 11, with volunteers from the companies Hilti, BCD Travel, Speedy and Salesforce.

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This will be quite a large scale job with as many as 16 volunteers working on the site each day along with WellChild staff.

West Building Supplies has donated a large amount of building materials required to complete the work.

Lorna Pedersen, head of Helping Hands, said: “The children and families supported by Willows Lull are the very same type of families that WellChild strives to support, and this is a great opportunity for us to collaborate.

"We are sure the finished garden will be a fantastic addition to the Willows Lull centre and will be well used by the children, their families and others who visit the centre. We would like to thank the hard working volunteers who are donating their time and skills to make this project a reality.”

WellChild provides essential and practical support to ensure that the increasing number of seriously ill children and young people in the UK have the best possible quality of care.

The charity has invested more than £20 million in ground-breaking children's health research projects.