Hessam Amiri is one of Daring to Dream’s Ambassadors, together with his brother Hamed Amiri. The three brothers of the Amiri family are Hussein (the eldest who was born with congenital heart disease), Hamed and Hessam. Together with their parents they were forced to flee from their country, Afghanistan, to seek sanctuary in the UK, and essential medical care for Hussein. The family settled in Cardiff. Hussein passed away in 2018, having enjoyed many years. Hessam reflects on his emotional...

Hamed Amiri is one of Daring to Dream’s Ambassadors, together with his brother Hessam Amiri. The Amiri Family The three brothers of the Amiri family are Hussein (the eldest who was born with congenital heart disease), Hamed and Hessam. Together with their parents they were forced to flee from their country, Afghanistan, to seek sanctuary in the UK, and essential medical care for Hussein. The family settled in Cardiff. Hussein passed away in 2018, having enjoyed many good years. Hamed reflects...

Quiet Rooms in Hospitals are important spaces They are the rooms that are used, as much as possible, for patient and family conversations with clinical teams. They are the rooms were often the toughest of conversations take place, clinical staff discussing with families’ serious deterioration in health, or the need for additional important interventions as well as, tragically, conversations about palliative care. Such conversations are not only clinical, they are hugely emotional and the need...

Daring to Dream, the Emotional Health Charity, makes spaces to talk. We all respond emotionally as well as physically to illness, although the need to address our emotional responses is frequently overlooked. The most helpful approach for all of us to deal well with illness is a combination of good clinical care together with good emotional health. Emotional health is simply about being able to label and speak about our feelings. The more we do that, the more we deal with them. Good emotional...

When we are ill, either with an acute crisis or an ongoing chronic condition – we respond emotionally as well as physiologically. Excellent clinical care addresses our physical needs, but illness – be it diagnosis, treatments or simply living with its impact on our lives - brings huge emotional turmoil to us all. Research supports that more robust emotional health really does enable a faster recovery from acute medical crises. Research also supports that more robust emotional health really...