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Celebrities show huge support for Panathlon at RHS Chelsea Flower Show

The Panathlon Joy Garden won a prestigious Silver-Gilt award, and attracted a raft of sporting heroes, television personalities and national media coverage.

A group of people sit in a garden. They are from left to right Louise Sugden, Steve Brown, Liz Johnson, Penelope Walker and Ashley Iceton.

Panathlon, the disability sports charity for young people, experienced an incredible showcase at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2024, garnering an abundance of interest and support after welcoming tens of thousands of visitors to its first-ever show garden.

The Panathlon Joy Garden was visited by a wide range of celebrities from Paralympic sporting heroes and famous television personalities, to the national media and general public.

The Silver-Gilt award-winning garden welcomed sporting champions including Liz Johnson (triple Paralympic swimming medalist and Panathlon Chair) and Ellie Simmonds (multiple Paralympic swimming medalist).

The Silver-Gilt Award

The Panathlon Joy Garden also attracted the attention of RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2024 judges, winning a prestigious Silver-Gilt award in the All About Plants Section.

Designed by Penelope Walker of Llevelo Design, the ‘joyful’ garden was recognised for its colours, curves and layout which create a harmonious, balanced space that is accessible to all, particularly wheelchair users. The garden was the first ever to be wheelchair accessible in the All About Plants Section.

Paralympian and Panathlon Chair, Liz Johnson, commented:

"We feel truly humbled and proud to have welcomed tens of thousands of people and celebrities to the Panathlon Joy Garden. To be featured several times on prime-time BBC television, radio and in national newspapers and magazines was a further fantastic response, and winning the Silver-Gilt Award really was the icing on the cake at the end of a fantastic week for Panathlon.
"Exhibiting at the world-famous RHS Chelsea Flower Show was our opportunity to highlight the life-enhancing and transformative impact of Panathlon’s competitive sporting opportunities for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) across the UK, and we smashed it with smiles all round."

Ashley Iceton from Panathlon, added:

"Panathlon would like to extend huge thanks to all of our supporters who have helped with this incredibly important project over the last few months, including Project Giving Back, the generous funders of the garden, and Penelope Walker from Llevelo Garden Design for her amazing hard work and attention to detail.
"We also thank Panathlon’s many wonderful volunteers, including St. James’s Place, Woodland Group, RBC BlueBay, Aspen, and John Lewis, who interacted with members of the public all week at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2024 to explain the garden and the vital work of our charity."

Woodland Group, a long-term supporter of Panathlon, was integral to the logistics and sustainable movement of the garden’s three special trees to RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2024, as well as the removal of the entire garden to Marjorie McClure School.

The Panathlon Joy Garden was built by Stewart Landscape Construction and sponsored by Project Giving Back.