An effort to install a sensory garden in a hospital may be given a boost by an insurance company competition.

The Aviva Community Fund awards the most voted projects with funding of up to £25,000, with William Harvey Hospital's Critical Care Sensory Garden currently top of Ashford's hopefuls list.

More than 500 charitable causes will be aided by the competition, with finalists selected from the most popular causes nationwide. Each member of the public registered on the site gets ten votes to use by Tuesday, November 20, and these can go on one or a number of projects.

Staff at the Critical Care Unit have been raising money for two months, hoping to create a sensory garden in the hospital for the use of patients and their visitors.

Sister Natalie Daly, who works in the intensive unit above the currently derelict square, says the area would be well used.

She said: “We’re trying to make an area where we can take patients.

“If they stay here for too long, they can get disoriented and confused about whether its night and day, so we want to take them outside so they can separate the two and relax.

"It would help them to be positive and would be very uplifting. Some of our patients have children and grandchildren and sometimes they don't want them to come and visit them on the ward, where they are often surrounded by very sick people."

Plans for the scheme, drawn up for free by an ex-patient, feature landscaping, benches and trellises. The construction work will also widen entrances surrounding the garden to allow bed-bound patients to use the facility, which is expected to cost £20,000 in total.

The people behind the scheme have suggested that about 10,000 votes are required to go through to the final, with the hospital's tally at 5,218 votes at the time of writing.

For more information or to vote for the sensory garden, visit https://www.avivacommunityfund.co.uk/voting/project/view/4-2998