A garden called ‘Facing Fear; Finding Hope’ which was created in support of Crohn’s and Colitis UK won a gold medal and the People’s Choice Award at the RHS Flower Show Tatton Park.

In creating and exhibiting the ‘Facing Fear; Finding Hope’ garden, Peter Hulland, Rory Tompsett from Chester-based Actual Landscapes and Denise Shields worked together for the first time.

Crohn's Disease inspired garden

They worked with an army of volunteers to create the garden and were delighted with the accolades it won.

Denise said: “I am on a high. It’s been an exhausting, amazing and the most wonderful achievement that the team and I could have wished for. We are immensely proud of how we’ve raised awareness of the charity and IBD conditions.”

She added that some visitors had a very emotional response to the garden and that it resonated with so many who either had personal experience of Crohn’s or another chronic illness.

Gold medal and people's choice award

Director of communications at Crohn’s and Colitis UK Dan McLean said: “Denise, Peter and Rory, have achieved something we, at Crohn’s and Colitis UK, had previously been unable to realise visually – the confusion, pain and loneliness of living with a chronic condition but with a pleasing peek towards hope and a welcoming place to retreat.

“Denise’s vision, and the sheer scale of her ambition, to bring interest and attention to these complex and lifelong conditions has overwhelmed us. She has also opened the opportunity of using this beautiful design to continue to reach other people that are newly diagnosed and who often feel they are alone, and a record of the design will enable us to reach those younger generations - the millennials - with this story of imagination, hope and opportunity.”

Bespoke sculptures, features and plants from the garden were sold after the event, together with donations made by the public, raising over £10,000 for Crohn’s and Colitis UK.