84-year-old coronavirus survivor climbs to highest point in Cornwall for NHS gardens
Robin took on the 1,378 foot climb in a bid to raise £100,000 for a healing garden at Treliske hospital.
Last updated 13th Oct 2020
An 84-year-old granddad who survived coronavirus managed to climb to the highest point in Cornwall.
Robin Hanbury-Tenison, an explorer from the Duchy, spent five weeks in a coma at Derriford Hospital, and was only given a 5% chance of pulling through.
His family were told to prepare for the worst after he was put on a ventilator, experienced multiple organ failure, dialysis, a tracheotomy and severe sedation delirium.
After spending months rehabilitating, from first steps with a zimmer frame to building on distance and strength, Robin climbed Cornwall's highest mountain, Brown Willy, on the 3rd of October. A date that marks exactly 5 months after he was discharged from the Intensive Care Unit in Plymouth, barely able to walk.
"Even a week before the climb I was wondering if I was going to be better in time to make it. Thanks to my wife pulling me and my son pushing me, we got to the top and waved the Cornish flag from the to of cairn up there."
Robin Hanbury-Tension
Robin, who has travelled the world’s rainforest and deserts and helped start the rainforest protection movement leading scientists on an expedition to Borneo, believes that his time in the healing garden was a game changer and started his road to recovery.
“Nature does make a difference. I think every hospital should have a healing garden. I believe this one saved my life. Now having beaten the virus, I want to ensure that as many patients as possible can experience the healing powers of fresh air and nature, and to raise money for more ICU rehabilitation gardens, starting with Cornwall."
Robin Hanbury-Tension
Robin and his family have made a pledge to raise £100,000 to help Royal Cornwall Hospital, the county’s only acute hospital, to create their own garden with a contribution to the existing garden at Derriford Hospital in recognition of their care of Robin.
So far, he has managed to raise around £60,000.
“A rehab garden will be life changing for our Critical care patients. Early rehabilitation in critical illness has shown to be incredibly important. Inside an ITU patients can lose all sense of time and place as day blends into night and they stare at the same 4 walls for weeks on end.
"A rehab garden will be a place for healing and rehabilitation, not only physical but for the mental and emotional self too, smelling different scents and the sound of the breeze through the leaves. It gives people a grounding and a reminder of what they have to aim for to keep them pushing through their recovery and rehabilitation.
"There is no truer saying than “the Healing power of nature” and no more so than in Cornwall where our patients are used to the outdoor life and being surrounded by this beauty daily. We want to make sure being in critical care doesn’t take that opportunity away from our patients for long.”
Lisa Niemand, Matron for the Critical Care Unit at Royal Cornwall Hospital
Anyone wanting to support Robin’s fundraising is asked to go to his Go Fund Me page here.