Kind-hearted Tesco shoppers help create a beautiful sensory garden for patients at our Little Hulton site

Customers at the nearby Walkden Tesco store voted for us to receive a £12,000 grant as part of Tesco’s Bags of Help funding initiative, in which a 5p bag levy is awarded to local outdoor community projects.

Patients, families and carers are now enjoying the relaxing garden with its colourful range of plants and shrubs which are reached by a modern wheelchair-friendly pathway, created by Rick’s Paving Services.

Additional gardening work will be done at our hospice in the coming months, also funded by the Tesco Bags of Help grant, to ensure the space is as relaxing and enjoyable as possible for our patients.

Elaine Fox, Community Champion for the Tesco Walkden store, said: “It’s wonderful to see the sensory garden come to life as I’ve followed progress very closely.  We’re hugely excited about Bags of Help and the potential it has both to grow, and to help even more local community projects across the UK.”

Tesco teamed up with environmental charity Groundwork for the latest round of its Bags of Help project, with around six million shoppers nationwide using tokens issued at check-outs to vote.

Julie Foley, Support Services Manager at St Ann’s, said: “The sensory garden is amazing and is loved by our patients. They derive real calm and serenity from having access to an open safe environment where they’re able to sit with their families in a beautiful, peaceful and calming area.

“Patients and their loved ones also find time to reflect, addressing their psychological, spiritual and social needs. Sensory gardens are proven to be a great source of enlightenment and we’d like to thank Tesco, Groundwork and the store customers for thinking of us.”

Lindsey Crompton, Head of Community at Tesco, said:  “Bags of Help has been a fantastic success.

We’ve been overwhelmed by the response of our customers and it’s been great to give people a say on how the money will be spent in their community. It’s nice to see the projects come to life.”

Three groups in each local area are awarded grants every other month. Since launching in 2015, Bags of Help has awarded more than £33 million across more than 6,300 local projects.