Meet the Doctor Who Rescues Wedding Flower Arrangements and Gifts Them to Hospital Patients

This Virginia doctor found a unique way to brighten hospital stays.

Eleanor Love came up with the idea for The Simple Sunflower — a project that regifts flower arrangements from weddings and events to hospital patients — in 2019, when she was a medical student at Virginia Commonwealth University.

"I was inspired through my clinical rotations as a medical student to give back to my patients in a new and different way," Love, now 27, told PEOPLE (The TV Show!) in Wednesday's episode.

After coming up with the idea, Love started reaching out to local wedding planners — and to date, her team has been able to deliver close to 1,000 arrangements to patients at VCU Medical Center.

Alan Wei Eleanor Love

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Although a simple gesture, the gift of flowers can have a big impact on patients.

In addition to making their time in the hospital more comfortable, Love said the unexpected deliveries can also "improve their experience in the hospital and potentially even reduce their fatigue."

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Out of all the lives she's touched, one person stands out.

"My favorite moment is when I delivered flowers to a patient who had been in the hospital for weeks recovering from a heart illness," Love recalled. "When I brought her the flowers, she was so shocked and so surprised because we bring the flowers as a kind of an anonymous gift."

Alan Wei Eleanor Love

After three weeks in the hospital, the flowers made all the difference.

"Her face lit up, she started to cry, she told me about her garden at home," Love shared. "She told me she had been at the hospital for three weeks and it was a really long and difficult experience for her. And it just really brightened her day and brightened her stay."