Victor Lund previously spent 64 days on the ICU after contracting severe pneumonia. While recovering on the unit, he discussed the idea of a garden to help both patients and staff with Allison Keegan, an Advanced Critical Care practitioner. Having secured support from among her colleagues and supporters, she has now turned Victor’s garden vision into a reality.
Bringing the garden to life, family-owned maintenance contractor, Novus Property Solutions, donated materials and completed labour free of charge to deliver the landscaping of the space, which included gravel and paving for accessibility, alongside the installation of benches and planters. Novus has a long-standing relationship with Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, and has carried out a wide variety of refurbishment and maintenance works across the Trust’s estate since it was appointed to the Measured Term Framework in July 2015.
Victor Lund said: “I just wanted to go out into the garden and feel the air and breeze through my hair. You can’t beat the fresh air – it makes you feel so much better. I think it’s a magical garden. I want to thank everyone for letting me open the ICU garden, which will benefit patients recovering from their trauma, along with the staff. I would like to thank the staff in ICU who all saved my life. Words can never be enough for everything they did to keep me alive. I’d like to give a special thank you to Allison Keegan, who took me outside of ICU; it always made my day, and made me want to get better. Being able to open the garden with Allison was a dream come true; thanks for making it all happen.”
Allison Keegan, who secured the support of organisations including contractors on the new North Manchester General Hospital development, said: “It’s a fantastic feeling to get to the end of the ICU garden project. There’s lots of evidence that being outside helps patients become less confused, and can also reduce the length of stay. It really does help with patients’ morale. If they have been inside for weeks and weeks then there is a massive difference to their well-being when they can go outside.”
Chris Murphy, head of Operations at Novus Property Solutions, added: “We always aim to go the extra mile when it comes to delivering projects for our highly valued clients, and we’re proud to have taken the lead with the transformation of North Manchester General Hospital’s ICU Garden while we carried out contracted refurbishment works.”
Victor Lund, far right, front row, is pictured with Allison Keegan, Advanced Care practitioner (centre), representatives of Novus and Morgan Sindall Group, and Kathy Cowell OBE, the Chair of MFT (far left), who is next to the CEO of North Manchester General Hospital, Ian Lurcock.