Inside charity’s new sensory garden opened by actors Warwick Davis and daughter Annabelle

Dream of sensory garden for local charity becomes a reality . Annabelle and Warwick Davis had the pleasure to meet Artist and Garden Creator Jeni Cairns. Picture: Terry Harris.

After months of work, with progress impeded by the impact of the pandemic, their dreams of a sensational sensory garden for users of the Young People’s Counselling Service has finally come true.

Meeting at the Annabelle Davis centre (ADC), named after Patron Annabelle, who plays Sasha in CBBC show the Dumping Ground.

The ADC is home to local charity The Young People’s Counselling Service (YPCS) a Child and Family Mental Health Hub, which provides Counselling, Play therapy, wellbeing groups and Family support groups in the Yaxley and Fenland area.

Now the centre can offer face to face sessions again, the garden can now also be used by the YPCS team, clients, and their families as an therapeutic area to relax between sessions or spend time before leaving the centre.

The charity has been taking on a number of renovation projects and the garden which was neglected and full of weeds was next on their list to tackle.

Wanting to provide a therapeutic safe sensory space for staff and visitors was a priority for the centre, after receiving grants from the Huntingdonshire District Council community chest fund and Persimmon the work could begin.

For Vice-chair and trustee, Michelle Lay seeing the garden transformed into a paradise has made a huge difference to the charity.

She said: “Our centre now feels finished and our counsellors have an amazing therapeutic space to use between what can be very emotive counselling sessions.

“Our parents have a space to sit and reflect and we hope the young people and with the help from people at the adjoining school William de Yaxley, they will also use the sensory garden as an outside classroom.”

Local artist Jeni Cairns, from Whittlesey helped design the garden, after listening to the centre’s vision for the green space.

Because of delays due to the covid lockdown, the garden was finally completed in September.

Complete with a herb garden and an array of aromatic plants, most of the garden is already established to how it will look in the summer.

Factoring in staying as environmentally friendly as possible, Jeni used reclaimed timber for the beds and used reclaimed materials for the garden benches.

Warwick Davis - well known for his roles in Star Wars and the Harry Potter films - accompanied his daughter on the visit.