E.P. Barrus Support Help For Heroes’ Recovery Centres

Published on: 15/05/2017

E. P. Barrus Ltd. is continuing its support of the charity Help for Heroes with the supply of WOLF-Garten garden tools.

Help for Heroes was launched on 1st October 2007 and supports Serving and Reservist Personnel and Veterans who have suffered injuries or illness as a result of their service.

Help for Heroes has four Recovery Centres across the UK in Wiltshire, Plymouth, Catterick and Colchester. The centres aim to ‘Inspire, Enable and Support’ beneficiaries to help them rebuild their lives through a range of support facilities, including life skills courses, City and Guilds accredited education and training, world-class sports facilities, leisure activities and welfare and support advice for life.

Each Help for Heroes Recovery Centre has its own garden and Barrus has donated WOLF-Garten garden tools to the ‘Hero Garden’ at Tedworth House. Offering one-off workshops, activities in the Rolling Recovery Programme, a weekly Gardening Club and the opportunity to complete the City and Guild Level 2 in Horticulture. The Hero Garden introduces beneficiaries back into the learning environment whilst increasing mindfulness, emotional wellbeing and the opportunity to make friends.

Giles Woodhouse, Head of Recovery South at Help for Heroes said: “We are extremely grateful for the donation of gardening tools from Barrus. These tools have allowed many wounded, injured and sick service personnel and veterans take up a new hobby and help them to rebuild their lives post injury or illness.”

Many beneficiaries look forward to the weekly Gardening Club as, in addition to learning new skills, the class can be used to share and discuss any problems they are facing with mutual understanding and support. The weekly club focusses on growing vegetables that are used in the Tedworth House kitchen or taken home by the members to their loved ones.

The skills acquired from the club can be used either at home or developed further by taking qualifications to build a career. The WOLF-Garten tools have proved a real asset to the Gardening Club as the telescopic handles make the vegetable patches more accessible to everyone in the group.

‘The telescopic handles are great, they allow for different working heights for people with mobility problems or that can’t bend. They are useful to adjust the working range and make the area more accessible to everyone in the group.’

Lucy Thorpe – Horticultural Therapist at Help for Heroes

‘The telescopic handles break down barriers and enable us to be gardeners. There is now a broader range of things that we can do which has made it more enjoyable.’

Dave Pegram – a Help for Heroes beneficiary.

‘With the tools, we are able to experiment with our limits and do things in the garden that we hadn’t previously been able to due to mobility issues from injuries we sustained during our service in the forces.’

Cornelia Oosthuizen - a Help for Heroes beneficiary.

For further information about the WOLF-Garten range, visit www.wolfgarten-tools.co.uk.

About Help for Heroes

Help for Heroes offers comprehensive support to those who have suffered life-changing injuries and illnesses while serving our country. This support is provided through grants direct to our Heroes and their families, grants to other charities and through four Help for Heroes Recovery Centres across the UK. A recent study launched in January 2016 by Help for Heroes and King’s College London found of the 750,000 men and women who served as Regulars between 1991 and 2014, at least 66,000 need long term support. www.helpforheroes.org.uk 

For further information regarding Help for Heroes please contact Kirsty.Williams@helpforheroes.org.uk

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