Taylor’s garden transformation

Our whole ethos at me&dee is bespoke – we’re all about the not box ticking thing.

We’ve been working with the amazing Taylor Lewsey and his mum Terri for many years. Taylor as our me&dee family know suffered with meningitis and sepsis as a baby and had to have his legs and hands amputated. He’s eight years old now and has so far undergone 86 operations – that’s right. Eighty. Six.

We’ve done lots for Taylor and his family over the years – days out, presents, experiences – just whatever we could think of to provide joy and happiness in a life that’s not been easy.

Anyway so this brings us to Taylor’s garden.

Taylor and his family moved into their house in Ilkeston a few years ago and inside it’s pretty great for his needs.

Outside, though, was a bit of a different story. We won’t go into the whole long sorry saga but basically Taylor’s garden was on two levels outside and because when he’s at home he likes to get around outside on just his stumps as his blades can be a bit painful, he couldn’t actually use any of the nice stuff that was out there for him, like his slide and his trampoline.

With the weather getting warmer we wanted to try and help so enlisted the help of the one and only … drum roll please … Paul Bignall from PB Landscapes of Melbourne.

Honestly, if gardeners were knights in shining armour … well you get the picture anyway. Paul and his fab team were on it like a car bonnet with this job. And our Maria knows them anyway as they came and fixed her garden in Ticknall a few years back. Blimmin’ love that guy!

So Paul and his chaps just came and worked so hard for two days solid: they levelled off the top of the garden, putting down grass, and sprucing up the area. The main thing was the levelling off of the space as now Taylor can just charge outside and take himself off down the slide and on to the trampoline. Honestly, it’s amazing to see how fast that boy can get around on his stumps – he’s like a rocket!

Paul’s free gesture, which tied in with the Big Help Out drive connected with the King’s Coronation, attracted the attention of TV crews and we were very chuffed that Jodi Law and Beth Smith from BBC East Midlands Today came out to do some filming of Taylor, his mum and Paul so they could tell everyone what a great job had been done.

Sometimes it’s not money that counts – but time and skills.

Big up to Paul from PB Landscapes for helping us out on this one. We wish Taylor joy in his new garden – he’ll need it with all this lovely weather!