The Princess of Wales got her hands dirty on 24 September, joining people in recovery at a gardening session in Southend, Essex. She was marking Addiction Awareness Week in her role as patron of the Forward Trust. Kate turned down the offer of gardening gloves and helped to pot plants at Garon Park. When asked whether she did much gardening at home, she replied: “A little bit.”

A gardening scheme built around recovery

This Princess of Wales visit centred on Forward Growing, a programme run by the Forward Trust in partnership with Garon Park. It launched in spring and offers weekly gardening sessions, plus “walk and talk” sessions on the park’s nature trail. People can learn new skills and connect with others while they are there. Volunteers travel to the park by minibus once a week, and the site also has a cricket ground and allotment space for growing vegetables.

Dr Liam King, assistant manager at Garon Park, explained that the scheme is building towards a dedicated gardening area. Vegetables grown there go back to the Forward Trust site in Southend. There, people in recovery learn how to prepare and cook the produce. The programme supports those using the charity’s Southend Treatment and Recovery Service, which helps people recovering from drug and alcohol addiction.

Bees, ecology and a few laughs

Kate also found time for lighter moments. Pointing to a sign that read “beehive”, the keen beekeeper asked whether the park kept hives. Dr King explained that it was a beehive experience, mostly for children, where visitors can enter and find out what life is like for a bee. “It sounds right up my street!” she laughed.

Later, Dr King mentioned that he had studied ecology and farming buffer zones to help combat climate change. Kate joked: “I should have my husband here. He knows more about that.”

Personal stories from the picnic benches

Addiction Awareness Week is about people, and the mood shifted when Kate sat down at the picnic benches to hear from those the scheme has helped. Steph Sampson, 45, shared that her daughter Mia, 21, had written her a five page letter begging her to stop drinking. She read it in rehab. Sampson has now been sober for six and a half months, and she told Kate she got “goosebumps” when Mia said how proud she was in a birthday card in August.

“Being in rehab and learning that it was an illness was a massive turning point,” Sampson said. “I could explain that to my children and my mum.” Kate replied: “It’s such a powerful message for others. Well done. It’s a shame your family isn’t here. They must be super proud.”

Lisa Bryer, the filmmaker behind The Last King of Scotland and a trustee of the Forward Trust, also met the princess. She said she had been clean and sober for 44 years after her well documented battle with heroin. “We are so lucky to have the princess as our patron. She’s incredible,” she said afterwards. Of the charity’s schemes, she added: “It works. It’s extraordinary but it’s building the structure and taking away the stigma of addiction.”

Why Addiction Awareness Week asks the nation to talk

Kate heard that people in recovery often find the charity through their GP or the prison service. Around 17,000 people die each year from drug or alcohol related causes in the UK, a figure that gives these conversations real weight. Organisers of Addiction Awareness Week have called on the nation to start “The Big Addiction Conversation” this year.

At the end of her visit, Kate was shown packs of icebreaker cards with questions designed to prompt conversation and raise awareness. “There are so many ways to connect to the community here, through sport, through nature, through other people,” she said. After petting a support dog that goes into prisons as part of the Forward Trust’s work, she waved goodbye. The Princess of Wales visit closed with a simple reminder from Addiction Awareness Week: talking openly makes it easier for people to ask for help.

Source: dbrecoveryresources