Mason Moore | Hinckley Reporter | 7 December 2025
NEW planters have been installed to brighten the patients gardens at a Hinckley hospital.
Staff and volunteers with the new display. L-R: Sandra Maxwell, Keryn Parish, Coun. Lynda Hodgkins, Su Barnett, Sarah Gurney, Amanda Thompson, and Ben Roffey (front) (Image: DeBG Photography)
They have been installed at the Community Hospital on Ashby Road after sixth-form student and hospital volunteer Ben Roffey approached council leader Stuart Bray to see if he could help provide the hospital with taller pots and more plants.
Ben, who regularly volunteers with the hospital’s Meaningful Activity Team and the council’s Green Space Volunteers, believed planting flowers would ‘brighten patients’ days’, as they loved being outside, though some patients struggled to bend down.
He raised £127.73 through a Halloween bake sale at a Hinckley school to fund the plants and improve the gardens for patients.
The council’s Green Spaces Team joined forces with the hospital staff and their volunteer group to create the colourful new areas in Sunnyside’s patient gardens.
The authority provided four planters that were previously used in the town centre and were no longer needed, and contributed £200 towards the plants, while the Green Spaces Team helped design, order, and plant everything.
The compost topsoil was donated by the council’s garden waste disposal contractor, JF Powners, who donated a further £250 to the hospital for gardening and other patient activities.
Council Leader, Coun. Stuart Bray, said: “We were delighted to support Ben’s great idea and to help to add some colour and cheer to patients at the Community Hospital. It’s been wonderful to see young people volunteering in the community and fundraising to support our older residents at a challenging time in their lives.”
Keryn Parish, from the hospital, said: “I’d like to thank the council’s Green Spaces team, Powners, and all of our staff and volunteers for helping to install these planters and new flowers in the patient gardens, as they have already brought a lot of joy to our residents.
“Ben and the other volunteers have shown what a huge difference people can make to the lives of others.”
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