BIG-HEARTED volunteers have carried out a Love Your Garden-style facelift so a youngster with cerebral palsy and epilepsy can finally enjoy being outdoors at her own home.
The Wiseman family moved into their accessible bungalow in Willow Gardens, Feering, for their child Bonnie and her wheelchair.
Seven-year-old Bonnie suffered complications at birth and has cerebral palsy and epilepsy, which means she needs round-the-clock support and to ensure her needs are being met.
She can not speak and uses a wheelchair full time.
The family’s garden has a small patio, but the rest of the garden was made up of soft and uneven ground with limited shade, which meant they could not take Bonnie outside or spend time in the garden as a family.
Well Child, a national UK charity for seriously ill children, wanted to help - and so did more than a dozen volunteers from British Gas.
Roger Merrit, a Well Child Helping Hands team member and project manager for Bonnie’s garden, said: “The family couldn’t get Bonnie outside at all, and they couldn’t spend any time in the garden as a family.
“So the aim was to create a nice flat, even surface, and a safe environment for Bonnie.
“We put up a nice sensory planted area as well, so that they can grow the plants and Bonnie can smell them.”
Roger designed the garden, adding sleek decking and a tall pergola for the family to create shade for Bonnie.
He works on a project a week, spending days designing the new gardens and procuring all the materials within the £2,500 budget.
Roger said: “It’s amazing to see it all finished.
“We had a great team of volunteers from British Gas. They were really good and really strong, and we couldn’t have done it without them.”
Joanna Reeves, 40, is an area customer delivery manager for British Gas.
She travelled for three hours all the way from Lincoln to volunteer for Bonnie’s garden.
Jo said: “We dug the whole thing up, levelled the whole thing off, and put some decking in, some astroturf, a nice sensory area, and a nice little lamp as well.
“We worked really hard over two days, and we made really good progress.”
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