The free virtual festival gives those with life-limiting and chronic illnesses the chance to enjoy an evening of live-streamed festival of music and dance.
Daring to Dream, the charity that supports the emotional health and wellbeing of patients in Wales, will be holding a virtual festival that allows those with life-limiting and chronic illnesses and their family and friends to enjoy a live-streamed night of music and dance.
Nearly half of all adults (approximately 1.2 million people) in Wales are estimated to be living with a long-standing, physical illness. Of those, the lives of more than half (approximately 800,000) are somewhat or severely limited by their illness.
Daring to Dream’s mission is to extend support for patients’ emotional health and wellbeing, complementing clinical care so they can recover or live as well as possible with ongoing conditions.
The free festival, which will be held on the evening of Friday, February 17, will be hosted by broadcasters Sian Lloyd and Jason Harrold. It will bring together a string of talented artists for a fun-filled evening with music and dance performances.
The line-up for the evening features:
- Hear Our Voices band
- Afro Cluster
- Ify Iwobi
- Soul Lotta Fun
- Sinfonia Cymru
- Alli Gemini
- Emilie Parry-Williams and Thomas Mottershead
- Welsh Ballroom Community
Lleswyl also showcases:
- Tenovus Cancer Choir
- Forget-Me-Not Chorus
- ICU Liberty Singers
Daring to Dream has established the wellbeing festival to raise awareness of the need to nurture patients’ emotional health during difficult times. Lleswyl (meaning ‘wellbeing festival’ in Welsh) will give those who cannot attend festivals and events in person due to illness, disability or financial disadvantage the chance to enjoy a jam-packed programme of performances from the comfort of their own home, hospital bed, supported living community or care home.
The charity’s founder, Barbara Chidgey, is encouraging people to hold a Llewsyl ‘get-together party’ with 
family and friends and neighbours.
She said “Supporting the emotional health and wellbeing of people living with longstanding physical illness is a huge, under-served and under-represented inclusion agenda. Daring to Dream’s role is of significant importance in supporting ‘living well with illness’.”
“Lleswyl 2023 is about helping those living with physical illness to be included in social gatherings. Long term illness really does lead to more and more social isolation. With nearly 50% of adults in Wales already living with a long-standing illness, you will certainly have people in your own families and networks who are affected by this.
“We are encouraging people to get together on 17 February as the festival takes place, invite people that you know who are living with chronic illness and share a fun evening together of food, music, and happiness. As long as you have access to the internet, it can be enjoyed by everyone, anywhere. And it is free!”
Daring to Dream patron Neil Hopper, a Swansea-born vascular surgeon, underwent bilateral below-knee amputations after contracting sepsis in 2019 and knows only too well the emotional impact having a serious physical illness can have on emotional health and wellbeing.
He said: “Losing my legs was horrendous, but it wasn’t the worst part of what happened to me. The change in my personal circumstance, my place in society suddenly changed, my interaction with other people changed, the thought of getting my head around being disabled. All of this was the stuff that I found more difficult to deal with than having to deal with than the physical change of having plastic legs instead of proper legs.
“It’s been a proper journey and that’s the part that people don’t think about and sometimes what matters most.”
You can get free tickets for the event here https://lleswyl2023.eventbrite.co.uk
For more information, contact Kathryn Chadwick at Front Door Communications on kath@fdcomms.co.uk
