Sex Education star George Robinson supports Horatio's Garden project at Sheffield hospital before Chelsea Flower Show project is unveiled

Now George, 25, has become an appeal ambassador for Horatio’s Garden, a charity which works to bring recuperative outside spots to spinal centres around the UK. He is supporting efforts to create its latest garden coming to the Sheffield spinal centre next year – but not before a preview version is unveiled next week at the Chelsea Flower Show.

George, from Stamford, says: "I was on board instantly. It was a very easy decision for me to make to support such an amazing cause and the fact they want to build this garden at Sheffield spinal unit, a place that is very dear to my heart, is brilliant. It's going to make such a difference to everyone there. I certainly would have used it, and probably would have annoyed the nurses by staying out there until three in the morning."

Designed by Charlotte Harris and Hugo Bugg of Harris Bugg Studio, it will be “an immersive, restorative haven – the antithesis of a busy, clinical hospital environment – that puts the requirements of people with mobility needs at its heart,” says the charity.

"It's a place to escape just the confinements of the hospital, just get some fresh air and vitamin D,” says George.

He believes it would be a suitable place for patients to meet family and friends for the first time after their injuries.

"If there's a mother who's got some young kids and they're struggling to understand what's happened to mummy, it's a nice place in which to broach that conversation, to have that discussion, that isn't within the confines of a clinical environment,” he says. “You're out in the open, there's going to be these amazing little pods, rooms where they've got all of the kit so if anything does happen there's help on hand. It also gives the patients something to do. They can help with the gardening, they can grow tomatoes in the greenhouse, there could be a bit of a communal experience. Obviously whilst you're in hospital you're focusing on your rehab, your physio, but also to keep yourself mentally stimulated and occupied, it provides a really good setting for that to take place."

He adds that during a stay in hospital there can be an “element of being a bit institutionalised” but an outdoor space would ease the transition to being discharged.

George’s accident happened on July 27, 2015, during a school rugby tour when he “just threw myself” into a tackle. He dislocated his spinal column, which severed the spinal cord, and was instantly paralysed.

After spending 37 days in a South African hospital, he was flown 13 hours and admitted to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge for about 40 days before he was transferred to the centre at Sheffield’s Northern General Hospital, where he spent around seven months.

He has gone on to a career in acting, receiving acclaim for his role as Isaac Goodwin in Sex Education, and will feature again in the upcoming fourth season.

Dr Olivia Chapple, co-founder and chair of the trustees at Horatio’s Garden, says: "It's absolutely wonderful to have somebody of his profile, who's also had first hand experience of being in a spinal injury centre, and not least in the Sheffield spinal injury centre before there was a garden. He really does understand the impact that this project is going to make on many patients.”

Dr Chapple set up the charity after the tragic death of her eldest son, Horatio, who at the age of 17 was attacked by a polar bear while on an expedition on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard in 2011.

He had been a volunteer at the Duke of Cornwall Spinal Treatment Centre in Salisbury – his father David Chapple is a spinal surgeon – and it was originally the teenager’s idea to provide a garden for patients. The first one, in Salisbury, Wiltshire, opened in his memory in 2012.

Dr Chapple says: “My husband and I are both medics and when he first mentioned the idea, (although) we thought it was a great idea, we were also kind of concerned that there's quite a lot of red tape in the NHS, you know - it may be a very difficult one to actually fulfill. But he was so tenacious and so infectious with his enthusiasm, that he encouraged us all to do it and find a way to do something. And I think that is the thing: the eyes of the young, they can often see (through) problems because they don't see the barriers.”

She says it has been a “pipe dream” to have a showcase at the Chelsea Flower Show since founding the charity, which aims to provide gardens at all 11 spinal injury centres in the UK. Sheffield will be the eighth of these, and is hoped to be about eight times bigger than the one previewed next week, which will include references to the city’s history including the cutlery industry and the Rivelin Valley.

Dr Chapple’s work has won her a Points of Light award for voluntary service from former Prime Minister Theresa May in 2017 and, in 2019, she met the late Elizabeth II when her Salisbury-based group won the Queen's Award for Voluntary Service.

The Project Giving Back charity has underwritten the costs of the showcase at Chelsea, and its relocation to Sheffield, but Horatio’s Garden is also appealing for donations for the eventual South Yorkshire feature. For more information, visit horatiosgarden.org.uk