We are fundraising to create an accessible, landscaped sensory garden adjoining the new, Diagnostic Suite on our campus in the Neville Childhood Epilepsy Centre in Lingfield, Surrey.

We know that children and young people, and their families, attending diagnostic appointments often feel anxious and uncertain when in a clinical setting. So, our new Diagnostic Suite at Young Epilepsy is specially designed to reduce these anxieties and offer a better experience where both parents and patients feel more relaxed. As well as providing a better patient experience, this also increases the likelihood of securing good diagnostic data to inform any further necessary treatment.

This new Diagnostic Suite and Garden will include the worlds first OP-MEG scanner within a lightweight magnetically shielded room and will provide a comfortable and seamless environment for patients and their families undergoing diagnosis and/or ongoing monitoring of their condition. This has been an exciting collaboration between some of the greatest minds and experienced MEG researchers, clinicians, and engineers in the world.

The new Diagnostic Suite also includes a family room that opens into this planned sensory garden where young people and their families will be able to sit, rest or play, before, and/or after their appointments, reducing anxiety and improving the overall patient experience for all.

The sensory garden is a really important element of the overall design of the new Diagnostic Suite, which is why, we are delighted to be working with a Chelsea Flower Show Gold Medallist, to ensure we get this right. Research shows that therapeutic sensory gardens do improve an individuals wellbeing and mental health, which is especially important for us in getting the experience right for the young people, with epilepsy and/or other complex neurological conditions, that we support.

The Diagnostic Suite will receive visitors from across the UK, so by donating towards the garden today you will be ensuring more children and young people with epilepsy have the positive diagnosis experience they deserve.