Earlier this summer the world of our dear friends, David and Olivia Chapple and their sons Titus and Magnus, was shattered when their 17 year old son Horatio was tragically killed by a Polar Bear whilst on a young person’s expedition in Northern Norway. There are no words to express the enormity of their grief and the loss of such a remarkable, intelligent, young and gifted boy and it has deeply affected us all.
Horatio was working hard to achieve a place at medical school and volunteered this summer at the Duke of Cornwall Spinal Treatment Centre in Salisbury. He was profoundly moved by his experiences at the unit and by the people he met who were coming to terms with severe spinal injuries. He commented that spinal cord injury "was one of the worst injuries that anyone could have".
Horatio's parents, David and Olivia, are sure that he would have chosen the Jubilee Garden project at the Spinal Centre to support. It will be a working garden as well as therapeutic; where spinal injury sufferers will be able to seek pleasure as well as gain accessibility to gardening through learning and practicality - greatly enhancing the quality of their lives.
