Professionals secretly revamped the garden of a man who underwent a double lung transplant, thanks to the Herts Ad.
Philip Broadley, 35, has just been discharged from London’s Harefield Hospital after receiving a double lung transplant for a life-long condition called bronchiectasis.
He suffered chronic coughing, which brings up blood, and breathlessness. He has spent about a month recovering from the operation in hospital.
In the months spent on the transplant waiting list, Philip wanted to repave the family’s London Colney boggy garden but was too ill to attempt it.
Philip’s wife, Michelle, appealed for volunteers in the Herts Ad to complete the work ready for his return - and it was picked up by national technology supplier Bosch and St Albans based gardening company Kiwi Greenfingers.
They collaborated to turn Philip’s dream, sketched out before he was admitted to hospital, into a reality.
The transformation took three days and would have cost about £10,000.
Managing director of Kiwi Greenfingers, Bevan Clark, said: “When you hear of what some people go through, just by getting dealt a bad hand of cards, it really makes you think how lucky you are sometimes.
“We’re a local business, these guys are local, and we thought we can give something back, so why wouldn’t we?
“I don’t know how I would feel if someone did it for me but I think he will be blown away. The fact he did a bit of a sketch, thinking ‘One day, this is what I might be able to have’, then we got our hands on that and we produced it in the garden - I think he’ll be thrilled.”
Michelle’s dad, Tom Feeney, said: “We are over the moon. We can’t wait for Philip to come home and see it, I am sure he will be overjoyed and very tearful. We love it.”
“It was boggy, you couldn’t really walk on it because all the water was trapped in it. It never dried out and the kids couldn’t play in it. This is a million times better.”
He said they could not praise the team highly enough.
Brand manager at Bosch, Caroline Job, said they thought Philip’s garden was perfect for its new initiate called the Tough Garden Challenge: “We have been looking for a garden project to tackle, partly as a team building thing, partly giving back to the community, but also to set ourselves the challenge using our tools from Home and Garden, to transform a garden.”
“It was a great opportunity for us and we wanted to give back to the community, and this is a family in need so I’m really pleased that we have been able to do this.”
Michelle and Philip have been fundraising to thank Harefield Hospital since Philip was on the transplant waiting list.
A 26-strong 5k fun-run team collected more than £1,600 last year, and they have organised a charity Clubbercise class for April 25.
Tickets to the 45-minute workout and raffle, which starts at 7.30pm at Marlborough Science Academy, are available by donating £7 to www.justgiving.com/Michelle-Broadley2 and quoting clubbercise in the comment section.
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