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Sex Education star George Robinson has met staff at the hospital where he spent seven months in rehab following a life-changing rugby injury.

The British actor visited the Princess Royal Spinal Cord Injury Center at Sheffield North General Hospital.

On Wednesday, he left his fingerprint for a work of art to be displayed in a new therapeutic garden.

Robinson said he hoped the space would “change the lives of patients.”

It is being created by Horatio’s Garden, a charity that recruits leading designers to make garden sanctuaries to nurture the well-being of patients after spinal injuries.

Robinson, who played Isaac Goodwin in the Netflix series, suffered a serious spinal injury during a rugby match in Cape Town when he was 17 years old.

He became a quadriplegic after the accident, which occurred during a school tour of South Africa in 2015.

He underwent surgery in Cape Town before being transferred by air ambulance to Addenbrooke Hospital in Cambridge and then transferred to Sheffield.

Robinson, who lives in Stamford, Lincolnshire, told the BBC: “It’s good to be back in conversation with the staff and to see you all again.

“I was very lucky that all the staff here helped me physically and clinically, making sure I didn’t get too sick, but they also offered me their company and friendship.”

Horatio’s Garden said its “beautiful, accessible and therapeutic” space at Princess Royal would be used by more than 360 patients a year, as well as thousands of outpatients and hundreds of NHS staff, after it opens in 2024.

It has been designed by three-time RHS Chelsea Flower Show Gold Medal winners Charlotte Harris and Hugo Bugg, who based their plans on Sheffield’s landscapes and industrial heritage and are working with Yorkshire masons and cutters to create features for the garden.

Robinson visited the site, now a parking lot, where the garden will be created, as well as speaking with patients.

He said the garden would “change the lives of patients and their families” and “would have greatly enhanced my personal experience at the center.”

“The benefits of being outdoors, immersed in nature, and having time outside the living room are just as important mentally as they are physically,” he added.

The actor, an appeals ambassador for Horatio’s Garden, had a cast of this fingerprint taken as part of an effort to collect thousands of impressions for a piece of art to be displayed in the space.

The garden design will first be on display as a display garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in May.

Mr Bugg said: “We have listened to spinal injury patients, their loved ones and NHS staff for many months so that every element of our garden design reflects the experiences of wheelchair users and of those who have suffered traumatic spinal injuries.

“Our garden will be a place of sanctuary and hope, filled with meaning and a place of true respite from life’s challenges in a busy spinal ward.”

Dr Olivia Chapple, founder of the charity, said the gardens were vital “for reflection and adjustment for people facing life-changing injuries and long hospital stays.”