Ballyclare nursery’s field of gold ‘thanks’ to BART

Rows of golden daffodils are growing in support of Belfast Arthroplasty Research Trust (BART), which has a vision to provide world-leading orthopaedic research to improve patient care.

The initiative came about after Anne Bingham, from Bingham’s Plant Nursery, recently had hip surgery. Her sister, Maree Hurst, has also had hip replacements and their friend, Mary Crothers has had a hip replacement too.

BART was formed in 2002. Arthroplasty’ means joint replacement and often this refers to a new hip or knee. The charity is based at Musgrave Park Hospital, which is one of the biggest orthopaedic units in the UK.

The nursery, Mary and her family all support the annual BART Walk, but this year Ian, Anne’s husband, has come up with something a little different.

With the help of Andrew Downey from Ballynure, both men planted bulbs in rows 60cm wide and just short of two miles long at a field close to the nursery.

Ian then contacted the BART office with the offer of donating the flowers to assist the charity with its fundraising efforts.

Ian joked: “All the BART team has to do is pick and distribute/sell them! The team came to visit the family and the field and are excited to be part of this scheme.

“It’s small charity but the work they do is becoming more important as we all get older and

more of us need new hips and knees. In fact, it is predicted that by 2030 the number of patients requiring a new hip or knee will have doubled. It is hoped this venture will make people more aware of BART and help raise more funds to really improve patient care through research.”

Ian extended thanks to Derick Turbitt, a daffodil breeder from Portstewart, who assisted by selecting the bulbs and Andrew who helped with the planting.

You can follow how this story comes into bloom on both the nursery’s Facebook page

and BART Facebook page @bartMPH