Sex Education star visits site of 'life-changing' new Sheffield hospital garden

George Robinson meets staff at the Princess Royal Spinal Cord Injuries Centre

Sex Education star George Robinson has been reunited with staff at the hospital where he spent seven months in rehabilitation following a life-changing rugby injury.

The British actor visited the Princess Royal Spinal Cord Injuries Centre at Sheffield's Northern General Hospital.

On Wednesday, he cast his thumbprint for an artwork which will be displayed in a new therapeutic garden.

Robinson said he hoped the space would "change the lives of patients".

It is being created by Horatio's Garden, a charity which enlists leading designers to make garden sanctuaries to nurture patients' wellbeing after spinal injuries.

Robinson, who starred as Isaac Goodwin in Netflix's series, suffered a severe spinal injury during a rugby match in Cape Town when he was 17.

He was left quadriplegic following the accident, which happened during a school tour of South Africa in 2015.

He underwent surgery in Cape Town before being flown by air ambulance to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge and then transferred to Sheffield.

Actor George Robinson starred as Isaac Goodwin in the hit Netflix series Sex Education

Robinson, who lives in Stamford in Lincolnshire, told the BBC: "It's nice to be back chatting with the staff and seeing them all again.

"I was very lucky that the staff here all helped me physically and clinically, making sure I didn't get too ill, but also offered their companionship and friendship."

Horatio's Garden said its "beautiful, accessible and therapeutic" space at the Princess Royal would be used by more than 360 patients a year, as well as thousands of outpatients and hundreds of NHS staff, after it opens in 2024.

It has been designed by three-time RHS Chelsea Flower Show gold medal winners Charlotte Harris and Hugo Bugg, who based their plans on Sheffield's landscapes and industrial heritage and are working with Yorkshire stonewallers and cutlers to create features for the garden.

Robinson visited the site - currently a car park - where the garden will be created, as well as speaking to patients.

He said the garden would "change the lives of patients and their families" and "would have immeasurably improved my personal experience at the centre".

"The benefits of being outside, immersed in nature and to have time away from the ward are so important both mentally and physically," he added.

George Robinson left a thumbprint which will be incorporated into an artwork in the garden

The actor, an appeals ambassador for Horatio's Garden, had a cast of this thumbprint taken as part of an initiative to collect thousands of prints for an artwork to displayed in the space.

The garden's design will first be displayed as a show garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in May.

Mr Bugg said: "We have listened to spinal injury patients, their loved ones and NHS staff over many months so that every element of our garden design reflects the experiences of wheelchair users and those who have experienced traumatic spinal injuries.

"Our garden will be a place of sanctuary and hope, layered with meaning and a place of true respite from the challenges of life on a busy spinal ward."

Dr Olivia Chapple, the charity's founder, said the gardens were vital "for reflection and adjustment for people facing life-changing injuries and long stays in hospital".