STAFF at a Darwen residential home hope to put joy back into residents' lives by raising £2,000 for a summer garden.

Many of the folk at Greenways Residential Home, Salisbury Road, are housebound or do not like to go out on trips.

But there is nowhere for them to sit out and get fresh air in nice weather.

So when manager Louise Turner-Hope took over at the home she decided to do something about it and now wants to install patio doors and create a safe, garden for residents to sit out and have picnics.

To pay for the work, around five employees will embark on a sponsored walk from the home on June 25.

Ms Turner-Hope said: "The residents haven't really got an outside sitting area with wheelchair access so we are hoping to raise some money for a nice garden, where they feel safe and secure.

"We want to remove a huge window on the ground floor and replace it with patio doors. There is an awful lot of land to the side of the building so we hope it can be transformed.

"Just being able to sit outside makes a big difference to elderly people."

And she added: "We want to raise as much money as possible but we know it is going to cost at least £2,000 to do. So if anyone wants to donate to the project or sponsor us as a group we would be very grateful.

"There are five of us taking part so far but I am hoping to persuade some more. We have told the residents what we are doing and they said they are really pleased about the garden and are going to wave us off on our walk.

"We have had a few gorgeous days recently but they have missed out on them. If they had a garden we could have picnics and garden parties."

Greenways is a council-run home which caters for 28 men and women.

The walk will be a minimum of 20 miles and the staff will stop off at five council-run residential homes across Blackburn for refreshments.

Anyone wanting to sponsor them should call the home on 01254 701954.