LOROS Garden Appeal

The LOROS Garden Appeal launched last week - this is a great project which will see a beautiful LOROS garden installed at the RHS Hampton Court Show in July and then moved to its permanent home at LOROS (Leicestershire & Rutland hospice) in Leicester. It is widely acknowledged that time spent within or looking at a beautiful garden can help a patient come to terms with an incurable illness and can provide a restful retreat for visitors and staff. Three garden designers & landscapers have come together to provide their services free in order to raise the profile of LOROS and provide a lasting feature at the hospice. There are lots of sponsorship and donation opportunities but for any keen gardeners the team is also looking for volunteers to help plant the garden once it's back in Leicester.

I'd like to thank Rupal Rajani of BBC Radio Leicester who helped us get the appeal off to a great start with the feature on her programme last week! Find out more on www.lorosgarden.org.uk

Woodgate Chambers, Loughborough

I went to a lovely event this afternoon, the grand opening of the Glebe House Project's Woodgate Chambers which is the conversion of the old Magistrates Court in Loughborough. Woodgate Chambers is a wonderful historic building and now houses a cafe, fairtrade shop, e-bay shop and facilities for clients of Glebe House which provides services for children and adults with learning disabilities. The event was organised by Glebe House's excellent Project Co-ordinator Alyson Hunter and the official ribbon cutting was carried out by Nicky Morgan MP.

The most exciting part of the project is that clients of Glebe House have the opportunity to undertake work in the cafe, the shop and the e-bay shop and it opens doors for them that otherwise wouldn't have been there. So, if you're looking for somewhere to pop in for coffee in Loughborough, look no further than Woodgate Chambers in the town centre and have a browse around the fairtrade shop too.