Nature haven in woman's memory to 'change lives'

Dr Robson daughter Tina (right) died in 2020

A new nature reserve in memory of a woman who lost her life to addiction will help to change affected women's lives, her mother has said.

Tina's Haven, near Horden in County Durham, is named after Tina Robson of Sunderland, who died of a drug overdose in 2020, aged 35.

A week of community woodland planting has begun at the National Trust site and a Sycamore Gap sapling will be planted there in the autumn.

Ms Robson's mother, Dr Sue Robson, said she hoped the reserve would "immortalise Tina in a way that actually changes women's lives".

In 2022 Dr Robson founded an arts and nature-based programme in East Durham, to support women's recovery from addiction.

It is also called Tina's Haven and helps women who have suffered trauma-based addiction heal by connecting with nature.

Dr Robson said she was approached by the National Trust to work on the reserve and said finding out it would also be named after her daughter felt like "being in a dream".

"This isn't just a memorial. It isn't just in remembrance of Tina and her life - it's immortal, eternal," she said.

"It will be there after my passing, it will go on and on."

The nature site was bought by the National Trust in 2023

The 34 hectare (84 acre) reserve is between National Trust land at White Lea Farm to the north and Cotsford Fields to the south.

It will be a mixture of woodland, wood pasture, grassland, hedgerows, ponds and wetlands.

Its aim will be to enhance "recovery for both people and nature", the trust said.

Women taking part in the project will help create the reserve, along with community groups.

Ms Robson found spending time by the sea therapeutic, her mother said

The tree-planting has begun on what would have been Ms Robson's 40th birthday.

The mother-of-one became addicted to heroin when she was 15 having suffered trauma and abuse as a child.

She died at Bridge House Mission in Stockton in July 2020.

Dr Robson said she left her daughter's inquest in 2022 "with a passion and determination" to show women who suffered trauma would engage with services if they were "at the very heart" of them.

This led to the creation of Tina's Haven project, which is mainly funded through the National Lottery Community Fund.

Part of the project involved women working on a garden at The Barn, in Easington.

Dr Robson said it had attracted international interest and she hoped the approach could be used in other parts of the world.

"My hope died with Tina, but it's been restored by the women I work with," Dr Robson said.

"I am doing the work that Tina would have done if she had achieved recovery.

"Towards the end of her life, Tina absolutely loved being by the sea and she got a lot of healing and therapeutic benefits from that."

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The land was purchased with grant funding from the North East Community Forest Trees for Climate fund