The Myeloma UK Garden

Did you know...

• The Perspex® acrylic sculpture weighed in at an impressive 7.5 tonnes and was built by the team who constructed the 2012 Olympic cauldron
• The combined boulders weighed 18 tonnes and were designed to show the person pushing them outwards as they move forwards in life
• The grey slabbed barriers in the background featured a chink of light between panels to represent hope

About the garden 

The Myeloma UK Garden was inspired by Peter King, a Myeloma UK supporter whose wife Gill and brother Graham passed away in 2016 after a short battle with myeloma. It was designed to raise awareness of myeloma, an incurable form of blood cancer that originates in the bone marrow. This condition, while treatable, is not yet curable.

Rising from the centre of the garden was a giant sculpture constructed from layers of transparent Arctic blue acrylic and modelled on Peter and Gill King’s daughter, Gemma Peace. It represented the role of the carer - a person who is often crucial in ensuring that the patient remains the main focus of a myeloma diagnosis.

The sculpture was shown blowing seeds and plants onto the fertile soil below to represent new treatment, and as a sign of hope and growth. The garden had no defined path through it, purposefully mirroring the situation many myeloma patients face. Boulders were used to represent plasma cells, from which the cancer arises, and the overlapping steel panels that border the garden were physical representations of barriers in care and treatment. Plants included in the garden were Taxus balls, Malus, Anthriscus sylvestris, Prunus, Matteuccia struthiopteris and Melica nutans.

The Myeloma UK Garden was supported by: Bord na Móna Growise, Meyer Homes, The Christopher Laing Foundation and Mo Moody, in memory of her husband, Mike Moody.