Horatio's Garden founder 'thrilled' to become an OBE

Dr Olivia Chapple was awarded the honour in the King's Birthday Honours

Author: Aaron HarperPublished 18th Jun 2024

The founder of Salisbury-based charity Horatio's Garden has told Greatest Hits Radio that becoming an OBE left her 'overwhelmed' and 'completely thrilled'.

Dr Olivia Chapple was handed the honour in the King's Birthday Honours for her services to charity.

She told GHR she'd kept the award under wraps until it was made public on Friday evening.

"My phone started pinging at around six o'clock in the morning, as I had absolutely overwhelmed with the wonderful, wonderful messages which have come flooding in.

"It's been really humbling and the most extraordinary experience," Dr Chapple said.

She created the charity to continue taking on her son's ideas and creating a legacy for him, with their first garden being built at Salisbury District Hospital in 2011, which is also the regional spinal injury centre for the South West.

Dr Chapple said: "To have that recognised as being something which is having huge impact to people with spinal injuries and changing the way that we look at rehabilitation and accessible design, means an enormous amount."

The announcement came on the same day the charity opened it's seventh rehabilitation centre in Belfast.

Dr Chapple told us that she and her family didn't realise the impact their project would have.

She said: "13 years ago we set about creating a project in Salisbury, little did we know really the firstly, the impact that it would have on patients and their family and friends and the benefits that it gives to people not only physically, but about the sort of psychological recovery and adjustment and finding hope and something for the future."

She said dealing with a spinal injuries can be an 'extremely difficult' time, with people's hopes and dreams 'shattered."

Beyond simply recovering, there can be a number of other issues that people have to overcome such as childcare, work, making home accessible and arranging long-term care, should it be needed.

Dr Chapple said: "People are really in a turbulent state and really needing to be able to you find a bit of privacy, a bit of calm away from the bustle of the ward and a garden can do that on so many levels because it's beautiful, it's hopeful, it's distracting."

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