A plea for help with garden design for charity project

Ian Price has designed a show garden called ‘One for the journey’ in association with the charity ‘Aware Defeat Depression’ and hopes it will be put together during the Garden Show Ireland which takes place next month in Hillsborough. The garden is a 10x10m plot in the grounds of Hillsborough Castle. Ian also hopes to take the same garden to the Bloom Garden Festival in Phoenix Park in Dublin in 2012.

However, in order to produce the garden in May Ian is looking for support from companies to donate/lend materials in return for direct promotion at the show to the some 30,000 visitors expected over the course of the weekend.

Ian explained: “The majority of materials required to construct the garden have been very generously donated and so far Ridgeway Plant and Eglantine Timber are involved. But there are a few key elements that are still to be secured, and this is where local companies can help.

“If I don’t get support from local companies unfortunately I won’t be able to do this for the charity, which would be a real shame considering the work that has gone into the scheme already.”

A spokesperson for Aware Defeat Depression said: “Ian is a valued supporter of the charity and has in the past received help from its services when he was feeling depressed and unwell. He is putting his garden together for the Hillsborough show at great personal cost to mark the annual Depression Aware Week.

“We see the garden as a testament to the courageous battle with depression that many people undertake every year and we know that through it, Ian desires to spread a message of hope to the one in four in our society with a mental illness.

“By helping Ian, you will be helping people with depression to feel valued and supported and as a charity used to picking up the pieces of people’s lives shattered by the illness of depression we know that things like this garden will help us raise the issue of depression and overcome some of the stigma attached to it.”

Aware Defeat Depression has been working since 1996 to support all those in Northern Ireland affected by depression or bipolar disorder (manic depression). The charity have an established network of over twenty support groups in rural and urban areas across the country, which are run by their trained volunteers.

If you can help Ian contact him on 07582477705 or email him at [email protected].

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