Papworth Trust - Together We Can

The RHS Chelsea Flower Show is the major event in the UK's gardening calendar. It’s not always the gardens with the biggest budgets that catch your eye and inspire you. The Papworth Trust’s entry in the Artisan Gardens particularly caught my attention this year.

Garden music

You certainly couldn’t miss the bright purple. The raised, accessible garden appealed to many senses. It had sound and movement to draw you in closer. Peter Eustance of Symphonic Gardens designed the garden as a musical instrument for the Papworth Trust.

Papworth Trust's Garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show

A helpful booklet explained the charity’s work, the garden’s concept and involvement of Brunel University. The following inspirational words stood out on the cover:

Together we can

Listen * inspire * change

Inspiration

Dame Evelyn Glennie, the profoundly deaf, solo percussionist, provided the inspiration. She was fascinated by the “sea music” produced by the women of the Vanuatu Islands. They create rhythmic songs using only their hands, water and voices.

Making a difference

The Papworth Trust aims to make a difference in the lives of disabled people, the elderly, their carers and families. They provide support for the disabled to achieve their ambitions and aspirations. The charity wants to change the way society sees disabled people – to highlight abilities rather than disabilities.

Independence

The charity appreciates what it means to the disabled to maintain independence both inside and outside their homes. It also provides support to find a job that right for an individual’s abilities and help them learn new skills.

This small RHS Chelsea garden raised awareness of the charity’s work. 

Together we can is a great inspirational motto for all visitors to take away from the show.

The Papworth Trust’s website calls out:

Help us create a world where disabled people are seen 

for what they can do

Three YouTube videos of the garden and its development follow:

©Papworth Trust

The team - Dame Evelyn Glennie, Peter Eustance, Brunel University students:

©Papworth Trust

Garden sound clip:

©Anthony Cockell

© Anglicity Ltd

The Education of Girls

Malala won the Nobel Peace Prize at an amazing 17. There are many unsung heroines in the world. It seems to be a very appropriate time between International Women's Day and Mother's Day to recognise such heroines. Many mothers appreciate the value of education for their daughters because it was absent from their own lives. This blog is a thank you to a very special mother.

Unsung heroine

My mother is an unsung heroine. At 15, she left school barely able to read. An endless succession of childhood illnesses and hospital stays meant that she was hardly in school to learn. She lost her first job because she couldn't spell.  At secretarial college, a kindly lady helped her to read, spell and do shorthand. It seems ironic that in her later working life, many better-educated colleagues relied on her excellent spelling and grammar. The ability must always have been there. Confidence knocked in early life can remain elusive.

Three girls

Carole Andrews (my mother) married at 17. She had three daughters while still in her twenties. She worked hard to spare us her bad school experiences. She ensured that I could read fluently at 4, before even starting school.

Achievement

My mother continued to support my education as best she could even after divorce. She recognises that education opens doors. As a single parent on a secretary's salary, she ensured that all three of her daughters benefited from a higher education. We followed the career path of our choice. So it was that I, the great-granddaughter of a Welsh coal miner, was the first member of our family ever to go to university. At one stage my mother had 3 jobs to make this possible. What she couldn't achieve for herself, she helped us to achieve. Three daughters: two scientists and one linguist. Quite an achievement.

Do your best

No "thank you" could ever be enough for some of the sacrifices she had to make. My level of success often does not appear enough by comparison. Probably becoming Britain's Prime Minister, achieving a double doctorate or winning the Nobel Peace Prize wouldn't have come near either. But then, she never expected any of that. She only ever asked that we tried our best within our abilities.

Literacy to pay forward

I cannot hope to repay her. Neither of us is particularly demonstrative. The words always seem to come out backwards, sideways or not at all.  But I can write. I use those very literacy skills that she helped me to develop. I can write using the education that she made possible to pay it forward.

My family's story illustrates what can be achieved by educating girls in just a generation.

Thank you, Mum, today and always.

As a mother of two sons, I will save my views on the education of boys for a future blog. Please check back soon.