Cancer Research UK already has a Book of Remembrance for those who have left a gift in their Will. We wanted to build on this and take it further, creating an experience that was more accessible, more meaningful and more personal for friends and family – showing them the impact that their loved one’s gift has had by helping to fund life-saving research.

To achieve this we combined data and technology with nature to create

‘The Life Garden’, the world’s first virtual reality tribute garden, holding over 100,000 flowers - one for each person who has left a gift in their Will to Cancer Research UK over the years.

We then designed a physical garden to mirror it, and entered it into the world famous RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show, inviting friends and family to be the first to experience it.

The physical garden had to impress the judges to win a place at the RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show. To create our design, we teamed an award-winning garden designer with a VFX specialist to create ‘The Life Garden’ using the shape and colour of the Cancer Research UK logo to inform the design.

We wanted the virtual garden to hold over 100,000 flowers and mirror the physical garden. This required every flower to be painstakingly planted by our garden designer in VR before planting the real flowers in the same position.

To create an experience that was personal for friends and family as well as people visiting the flower show, we combined different technologies for the first time. Using the Unity gaming engine and Maya and developing software enabled us to take a loved one’s name and render a unique experience in real-time.

The response from friends and family was overwhelmingly positive. People were moved by the experience, using their loved one’s name to personalise it made it even more special for them.

We wanted everyone visiting or reading about it to feel inspired by these remarkable people, so that they might consider leaving a gift in the future.

• 150,000 people visiting the show saw the physical Life Garden.

• Almost 1,000 people used the VR experience at RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show.

• The garden was selected and featured on the BBC Television reaching 2.5 million people.

• National media covered the ‘The Life Garden’ and 23% of all UK adults were reached.

• Traffic to legacy webpages on Cancer Research UK website increased from 1798 visits to 7490 - a 416% during the week of the show.

• The garden was awarded the Bronze Show Garden award.