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The shame felt by Brian Cullinan at being unable to talk or write after suffering severe brain injuries became a corrosive force that threatened to destroy his family life.

Being unable to communicate became so frustrating that it was ruining the happiness that he felt after surviving a serious car accident. It was not until he started a gardening scheme, run by the charity Thrive, that the anger and shame began to evaporate. Now he is recovering his power of speech and has a new self-confidence.

For 18 months Mr Cullinan, 60, has travelled once a week to Battersea Park from his southwest London home to help to tend and cultivate plants on three small plots of land managed by the charity.

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“I’m always lifted by what happens to me here,” he said during a break from gardening.

“There’s a great feeling of uplift. What happens here is good for me. I’m a long way from being fixed up, from being the bloke I was, but I know it’s good for me. I do enjoy it.”

Since the accident, in which he was struck by a car, gardening has helped to restore his confidence and sense of self-worth, which had been shattered by his inability to carry out simple tasks that he used to do without thinking. “I felt ashamed. If it’s never happened to you, you don’t know what it’s like — I couldn’t do the things I wanted to do,” he said.

“It’s been a struggle getting all my faculties back. I still can’t speak normally but I can make myself understood. I still easily forget names, even friends, people I’ve been socialising with for years. That’s a big problem for me. Embarrassment is the worst part of that.”

When he started at Thrive, Mr Cullinan, who until the accident was a journalist at The Sunday Times and The Times, was so ashamed by his inability to write that he would dictate the daily diary that he was encouraged to keep, rather than expose his difficulty in forming letters.

Now, having responded to gentle but persistent encouragement from staff and volunteers at Thrive, he is once more able to write. But most striking has been the change from embittered self-criticism to a more relaxed, confident and content individual, happy to share a joke or chat with friends.

“My wife works, and if I was stuck at home I couldn’t bear it. I come down here and have a chat with my colleagues,” he said, adding cheerfully: “I come in here and try to do as little as possible. I drink a lot of coffee.”

Susan Stuart, who manages the Thrive scheme at Battersea Park, said of the change in Mr Cullinan: “There’s been a massive difference.

“When he came here he was still a bit of an angry man. He had very little confidence in himself — he would say he was useless and no good to anybody. He’s now a pretty lively part of the group.”

The Battersea Park initiative is aimed at helping people with learning difficulties, brain injuries and those recovering from heart attacks or strokes by offering them therapy through gardening. For people with head injuries gardening can help to restore confidence and self-esteem and encourage the brain to “rebuild its wiring”, which helps with memory and other mental processes.

Ms Stuart said of the recovery process: “It’s about building a new life, not rebuilding the old one.”