St Luke’s Garden Transformed by Lloyds Bank

St Luke’s Care Home in Runcorn, Cheshire, was last week delighted to welcome a team of hardworking volunteers from Lloyds Bank, who gave their time to create a beautiful sensory garden for residents.

Despite the poor weather an incredible 26 volunteers from the Commercial Banking Department in Manchester took part in the two-day project as part of national volunteering initiative, Give and Gain Day. The scheme aims to bring together skilled professionals with community groups for fun and inspiring volunteer projects throughout the country.

Not deterred by the torrential rain, the team wasted no time in ploughing ahead with their huge task of creating a therapeutic outdoor space for St Luke’s, which is home to 56 older people with dementia.

With the support of landscape architect Elaine Cresswell, who designed the space and oversaw the volunteers on the day, a full revamp of the gardens began, with the green-fingered team excavating old paving and rockeries to make room for a landscape of beautiful plants and flowers specially selected for their sensory benefits.

Sue Ashcroft, Manager at St Luke’s, says: “There is lots of research which suggests that sensory outdoor spaces can have significant therapeutic benefits for people living with dementia and so in creating this beautiful garden, the team from Lloyds have helped us to improve the well-being of our residents for years to come.

”The volunteers gave their time and effort so generously and didn’t let the rain dampen their spirits.  We’re so grateful for all of their hard work and on behalf of everyone here at St Luke’s, we just want to say a huge thank you!”

Ria Kelsall, Associate Relationship Manager, who led the volunteer team, says: “At Lloyds Bank, we’re so fortunate to be able to take part in the fantastic Give and Gain Day scheme which gives us the opportunity to step outside of our day-to-day roles and give back to our local community, whilst trying something different too.”

“We chose to lend our support to St Luke’s as they do such wonderful work supporting people with dementia to live full and happy lives and we just hope that in some small way, we’ve been able to contribute to this. Creating this sensory garden has been an interesting and fulfilling experience for us all, and I’m sure many of us are taking lots of new skills home with us!”