EMPLOYEES at Basingstoke's Primark store in the Malls have chosen to support Parklands Therapeutic Gardens, as part their local charity initiative, Step Up.

The store has already donated £851 to the NHS garden project and aims to increase this amount with fundraising events during the year.

The hospital is joining forces with the horticulture team from Sparsholt College (gold medal winners from RHS Chelsea Flower Show), alongside veteran volunteers who have received support from the military charity Help for Heroes, to create the gardens.

The money raised from the retail store will go towards helping maintain the gardens at the Aldermaston Road facility.

Primark’s Basingstoke store manager, Richard Henley said: “We’re very pleased to be contributing to a sensory garden locally at Parklands Hospital, for the benefit of those serving military personnel staying in Hawthorns Ward.

"It is also great to hear that other patients of the mental health unit will also benefit from the gardens project - through supervised groups for mindfulness, Yoga and Tai Chi. Our colleagues also look forward to helping with the planting in due course.”

Parklands is home to a general inpatient mental health ward as well as a specialist ward for serving MoD personnel - treating around 85 people each year from the armed forces with conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder, adjustment disorder, bi-polar and schizophrenia.

Southern Health’s medical director Dr Susie Carman said: “A big thank you to the generous team at Primark for choosing us as their charity partner this year. Support from local businesses such as this is vital to us being able to get this project underway.

"Now we have the means to make the wonderful design created by Hannah Thomas with Chris Bird of Sparsholt College into a sensory garden, creating a safe haven for our patients.”

For more information on Parklands Therapeutic Gardens or to support the project visit: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/brighterway-parklandgardens.