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Award-winning garden 'gives me a reason to get up'

Stefi Robertshaw Stefi Robertshaw is pictured standing in a garden on a clear and sunny day. She has long red hair which is wavy and she is wearing a dark green T-shirt with a white logo. Green plants, trees and pink flowers can be seen in the background.Stefi Robertshaw
Volunteer Stefi Robertshaw, who has ME and fibromyalgia, said the community garden brought her a sense of 'belonging'

A former dumping ground has won the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) and BBC The One Show Growing Together Award for Community Gardening after residents transformed it into a wellbeing space.

A team of helpers have created Park Lane Community Garden in Corsham, Wiltshire - a retreat for people struggling with their physical or mental health.

Volunteer Stefi Robertshaw, 56, has ME and fibromyalgia. She said the garden had given her a "reason to get up in the morning".

The award celebrates people transforming neglected areas into vibrant community hubs. Judge Guy Barter said: It's growing far more than fruit, vegetables and floral fantasias but people, their connections and skills."

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John Brennan A flower bed featuring green plants, two large tree trunks and purple, red, pink and yellow flowers in Park Lane Community Garden in Corsham, Wiltshire. There is a house in the background.John Brennan
The three-acre space - which beat 1,000 other competition entries - has 66 members and is open to the public

Robertshaw said the three-acre space - which beat 1,000 other competition entries from across the UK - made people feel "safe" and "comfortable".

She said: "I always get very depressed at this time of year as the nights draw in... but it has given me a sense of belonging and pride because it's the only thing I can be a part of that I can sustain.

"A number of fit people in full-time jobs do all the heavy stuff... then we've got people who are physically disabled or have invisible illnesses like myself and people with depression and anxiety," Robertshaw said.

"Everybody is so wonderful, friendly and welcoming and we have a complete acceptance and lack of judgement on everybody and their situation."

Claire Harding Claire Harding is pictured standing in the garden, in front of a lake which is surrounded by trees and shrubbery. She has long light brown hair that is wavy and she is wearing a black dress with white spots with a white camisole top underneath. She is also wearing a beaded necklace. She is smiling.Claire Harding
Unpaid carer Claire Harding said the garden had given her a "massive boost"

Another volunteer Claire Harding, who is an unpaid carer for her mother who has cognitive decline, said being a part of the garden had given her a "massive boost".

She said: "It's given me so much more than I was expecting.

"Sometimes in life you don't realise what's missing until you've found it... how was I managing without this?"

Harding said that having caring responsibilities could be "really overwhelming and isolating" at times.

"There are times I just want to cry - but every time I go to the garden it's like a reset," she said. "I feel much lighter than when I arrived."

Jo and Seb Radley Claire Harding wearing navy overalls and Stefi Robertshaw wearing green and two other volunteers putting up a shed in the community garden in Corsham, Wiltshire.Jo and Seb Radley
Claire Harding (pictured left), Stefi Robertshaw (pictured right) and other volunteers have transformed the dumping ground into a public green space

The group has received £1,000 of national garden gift vouchers to put towards planting and the future development of the site.

Founder and chairman Jon Brennan said it was a "huge thing" to be recognised.

"Every day there are at least a dozen-plus people who come through [the garden] and sit," he said.

"It's amazing."

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