Gneiss spot
By Louisa Felton
(Gazette Online 18/7/2006)

Rock on: David Stevens, garden designer, on Gneiss boulder, with Dr Roz Taylor and Stephen Richards, director of Macmillan Cancer Support, in the new healing garden at the Hospice of St. Francis.

A new healing garden designed by an 11-time Chelsea Flower show winner was unveiled at the Hospice of St Francis last week.

The Macmillan Healing Garden design was donated by gold medal winner David Stevens, and was inspired by one of the patients at the hospice, Ian Milligan.

The serene garden has an oriental design, water feature, calming plants and 44 tonnes of gneiss boulders from Inverness.

Volunteers led by one of the charity's patrons, Joan Gentry, cleared the land and helped with the planting under the watchful eye of Graham Pockett, a landscape architect who was commissioned to build the garden.

The hospice moved into its new £6.4m home in January of this year and each room is designed to look out onto one of the gardens.

Steve Richards of Macmillan Cancer Support said: "This marvellous garden will bring a huge amount of pleasure to cancer patients, their families and, importantly, to the wider community. I hope it will provide a healing space for patients, a welcome refuge for friends and relatives and a calming place for staff and volunteers."