A little girl with severe learning difficulties and physical disabilities can finally enjoy the garden at her home after not being able to venture out there for three years.

Tegan Harvey, 10, from Walsham-le-Willows, suffers from mitochondrial disorder, chromosomal translocation, severe learning difficulties and epilepsy.

The WellChild charity’s Helping Hands team has been at Tegan’s home this week where they have transformed the garden so she can access it safely, improving her quality of life.

Tegan’s mother Nicki Harvey explained a downstairs bedroom and bathroom were completed for her daughter in 2010, thanks to a Disabled Facilities Grant, but following the extension she had been unable to access the garden.

She said: “She’s gets out around the village, but before the bedroom was built she used to enjoy going outside and sitting under a shady tree and playing with water and sand in the summer and it just means we haven’t had that opportunity to extend her play into the garden for quite a while.”

The small patio was unsafe for Tegan as she could hurt herself during one of her frequent seizures and she could not reach the grass area in her wheelchair.

The Helping Hands team, with the help of local volunteers, worked on the garden on Tuesday and yesterday, with the improvements including a big area of decking and a ramp from her bedroom to the garden.

They have also undertaken a general tidy up of the outside area, including replacing broken fence panels and removing rubble left from the building work.

Mrs Harvey, a mother-of-three, 39, said: “I just wouldn’t have managed it myself. It was just too big a project.”

Tegan, who goes to Riverwalk School in Bury St Edmunds, needs round-the-clock support, she said.

She said, despite her health issues, she was quite a confident little girl with a great sense of humour.

The improvements to the garden means they will be able to spend more time together as a family, she added.

WellChild is the national charity for sick children and is committed to helping sick children throughout the UK as they deal with the consequences of serious illness and complex conditions.

For more information visit www.wellchild.org.uk