Queen Camilla has encouraged hospices to adopt nature-based bereavement support after meeting people who use the gardens at Royal Trinity Hospice to help express their grief.

Visiting the hospice in Clapham, south London, one of her oldest patronages, she heard how a monthly bereavement group collects flowers, leaves and other objects in jars to represent loss or memories of someone who has died. Members described how the activity helped them express their feelings and connect with others who understood them.

“It is a lovely idea. It would be a really good idea for hospices to follow suit,” Camilla said. “You can think outside and get all your thoughts together.”

For volunteers tending the grounds, gardening also offers a way to remain connected to the place that cared for their families.

Philip Hunter, a freelance biomedical research writer from Wandsworth and father of three adult daughters, began volunteering one day a week four weeks before the visit. His wife Hermione, who had pancreatic cancer, died at the hospice in April. They had been married for 44 years; she spent 44 days there.

“It is a good way to deal with the bereavement and to give back,” he said.

Paul Oliver’s wife Loretta died aged 50 from late-diagnosed ovarian cancer in 2013, when their daughter and son were 10 and eight. She spent her final six weeks at Trinity, where an inpatient room now bears her name. He helped raise funds and began gardening there after retiring in 2020.

He described friendships with other bereaved volunteers and said the hospice’s care had allowed the family to spend quality time with Loretta. Their accounts illustrated how returning to the garden could combine remembrance, companionship and practical service.

Camilla also met nine-year-old Rohan Arias, who has raised more than £5,000 over three years through picnics, baking and two-course family meals. Introduced to Trinity through school at five, he aims to exceed his fundraising total each year and also bakes for staff and bereaved families at remembrance evenings. He presented the Queen with homemade cookies.

Earlier, Helen Brewerton, head of specialist community nursing, whose 27 staff care for about 400 people, presented Camilla with a 20th-anniversary pin recognising her support for the hospice.

Camilla said it was “one of the first patronages that I took up and I am glad I am still here”.