I’m Victoria and I'm raising money with my running friends to help my lovely friend and garden expert Matt Biggs. He is leading efforts to create a hospital garden at Mount Vernon Cancer Centre in Hertfordshire where he has been undergoing cancer treatment.

While having his chemotherapy, Matt had the idea to make a new garden there – works begin in early 2026. He has assembled a brilliant team to help but more funds are needed. The garden planting has been designed by Millie Souter, head gardener at Tom Stuart-Smith Studio. It will be built by award-winning landscaper Mark Gregory of Landform Consultants, and planted and maintained by the Sunnyside Rural Trust, a charity working with young people and adults with learning disabilities.

We’re a group of friends who meet regularly to run (a few do lake swims too) and we’re undertaking various fundraising activities to help bring this to fruition, specifically raising money for the plants which will be grown and planted by Sunnyside Rural Trust. Over two months, we will do:

7km trail run (done!)

Community Christmas Lights Run (done!)

Riverside 14km run (done!)

Trail Half Marathon

10km London Winter Run

And training runs, coffee mornings, a sewing day and I’ll throw in some outdoor lake dips too (currently 5 degrees)! 

Please support us and let’s help Matt bring this garden to fruition so others experiencing treatment like he's enduring will be surrounded by a beautiful and therapeutic space.  Thanks so much.

Trained at Kew Gardens, Matt is a gardener, author and broadcaster – he is a panel member on BBC Radio 4’s Gardeners’ Question Time and he wrote the children’s book,  A Home for Every Plant: Wonders of the Botanical World, published by Phaidon, 2023. Matt's photo: Rachel Warne.

You can read more here: 

https://www.gardensillustrated.com/news/garden-mount-vernon

https://www.sunnysideruraltrust.org.uk/mount-vernon-cancer-treatment-centre-garden-makeover/