Horatio's Garden founder honoured with OBE

Monday, 17 June 2024 01:00

Dr Olivia Chapple, founder and Chair of Trustees at Wiltshire-based Horatio’s Garden, has been recognised with an OBE in the King’s Birthday Honours list for her exceptional services to charity.

In 2012, Olivia and her husband David set up the charity Horatio’s Garden, creating and nurturing beautiful, fully accessible garden projects across the UK to provide vital places for reflection and adjustment for people who have experienced spinal injuries, their families, and NHS staff.

The charity is a legacy to her eldest son, Horatio, an aspiring doctor whose research identified the need for a garden for patients in the NHS Spinal Injury Centre, where he volunteered.

The honour is awarded on the same day as the official opening of Horatio’s Garden in Northern Ireland.

Under Olivia’s leadership, there are now seven ground-breaking gardens across the UK, with the charity’s mission to create one in the heart of all 11 NHS injury centres.

In April 2024, Olivia was appointed High Sheriff of Wiltshire, an independent and non-political position appointed by the monarchy for one year.

Dr Olivia Chapple commented on the OBE: “There are so many people who share in this honour, but I devote it to Horatio, whose immense courage and kindness infuses me every day. He was ahead of his time when he realised how gardens could be essential places for people with spinal injuries going through the most difficult of times. Today, because of Horatio’s research and vision, we are supporting thousands of people. In the next five years, we hope to ensure that no-one with a spinal injury in the UK should have to spend months in hospital without being connected to nature.”

Victoria Holton, Trustee of Horatio’s Garden who spent 19 months in hospital after a spinal injury before there was a Horatio’s Garden, said: “Olivia’s trailblazing vision and passion to achieve a future where everyone with a spinal injury has access to the benefits of Horatio’s Garden has been boundless. These extraordinary, beautiful and vibrant spaces have revolutionised people’s experience during their long hospital stays and are critical to the incredibly challenging process of coming to terms with a spinal injury. I’m so pleased to see Olivia’s tremendous service recognised.”

Horatio’s Garden has now started work on its eighth garden at The Princess Royal Spinal Injuries Centre at Northern General Hospital in Sheffield, one year exactly since it began its life as the Best in Show winning garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show, supported by Project Giving Back.