It is hoped a recent collaboration will be the first of many between the charity and project Daring to Dream, the charity that supports the emotional health and wellbeing of patients in Wales, has showcased the inspiring Hear Our Voices’ project run by Cwm Taf Morgannwg Regional Partnership Board in their highly successful wellbeing festival, Lleswyl 2023. The Hear Our Voices band was part of the line-up of the charity’s Lleswyl online festival and performed just some of the co-created stories...

We are delighted to announce that our treasurer John Chown has been shortlisted in not one but in two categories of the Institute Of Directors Wales Director of the Year Awards 2023. John has been shortlisted in the Non-Executive Director category and also in the Public / Third Sector Director category. The awards, in partnership with Cardiff Business School, seek to reward the successes of directors representing a wide spectrum of businesses, organisations and sectors the length and breadth...

Daring to Dream's online wellbeing festival, Lleswyl, is back and all you need to do is log in to https://www.lleswyl.com/ on your Smart TV, tablet or phone. Daring to Dream is encouraging those interested in music and dance to take advantage of free virtual festival to give people with life-limiting and chronic illnesses the chance to enjoy an evening of entertainment from the comfort of their own home. The festival, taking place on Friday, February 17 and hosted by broadcasters Sian Lloyd...

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...

Lleswyl 2021 was an outstanding success. An excellent, dynamic, and engaging  evening delivered via a quality end-to-end digital production was. Amazing presenters, who were BSL interpreted, really pulled the evening together and brought it to light. Lleswyl 2021 did indeed shine a light on the need for emotional health and wellbeing support for those living with longstanding illness in Wales. It was an uplifting and joyous evening, with music as its catalyst, and drew on the power of music to...

As we come to the end of 2022 and look back, we can now really see & appreciate the impact of the grant for Daring to Dream from the Postcode Community Trust. We sought their support for essential core costs of Daring to Dream as well as some additional funds for us to extend our marketing and develop a contractual marketing relationship that would extend our reach and influence. When first setting up a charity, you really don’t think of those essential core costs that underpin everything...

Daring to Dream’s mission is to support the emotional health and wellbeing of adults living with physical illness in Wales. Why does this matter? It matters because we experience illness (and the impact of its treatments and interventions) physically and emotionally. The clinical teams provide us with great medical expertise and care, but in order to live as well as possible with the impact of physical illness and its treatments, then we need to also acknowledge our emotional responses to it....

Monday 10th October is World Mental Health Day. Often the terms mental health and emotional health are used interchangeably. However, mental, and emotional health have very different meanings and it is important to differentiate between the two. Mental health influences our thoughts and actions, and it covers three main types of well-being: Psychological Social Emotional The World Health Organization defines mental health as: “Mental health is a state of well-being in which an individual...

Daring to Dream is the first Welsh charity to receive support from The Worshipful Company of Marketors (‘The Marketors’), who have recognised the unique and important focus of this young and ambitious charity. The charity is unique in that it is the only one supporting the emotional health and wellbeing for adult patients in Wales, living with physical illness. This significant marketing support will contribute to enabling Daring to Dream to embark on its next stage of growth as it plans a...

Jo is an artist, performer, maker, and a gardener. We have one body. I’ve always been a physical person - dancing, moving, gesturing and expressing myself through and with my body has been my first language and later from the age of 19, a livelihood. Now aged 50 it’s changed again and I’m trying to be a friend to this new version of me. As a female professional dancer there’s been a sense that my body doesn’t always belong to me. It might belong to choreography, a choreographer, oftentimes a...

Daring to Dream is delighted to announce that, with support from The National Lottery Community Fund in Wales, the charity has now finalised the  transformation of three more rooms in the Cardiothoracic Directorate at University Hospital of Wales. This week has seen the completion of the Cardiac Day Case Unit (CDCU), as well as our recent transformation of Ward B1 Patients’ Day Room and Out Patients’ Department Quiet Room. These room makeovers ensure the charity continues to fulfil its aim to...

On March 29th, the charity held an online celebratory event, hosted by Sian Lloyd. We aimed to: raise awareness of the need to support the emotional health and wellbeing of adult patients in Wales living with physical illness inform and celebrate the remarkable recent achievements of Daring to Dream, a young and ambitious charity, which only achieved its charitable status after the first lockdown in July 2020. Joining Sian in the studio on the night were three wonderful people who live with...

Daring to Dream invites you to join in the Celebration March 29th 6pm onlineOn behalf of the trustees of Daring to Dream, may I extend an invitation to you to attend our online Celebration event, hosted by Sian Lloyd, on Tuesday  29th March (18:00 – 19:00)? Please register with eventbrite by clicking here as soon as possible. There is no cost to the event. Against huge odds during the pandemic, we have worked together with three different directorates at University Hospital of Wales  and...

At the end of November, Daring to Dream, celebrated the success of our first inclusive festival-at-home experience for those with chronic illness, as well as for those who are well. Lleswyl: The Daring to Dream Festival was live-streamed, free of charge, to bring the festival experience to everyone, including those living with a chronic illness or disability. As a charity we were also raising awareness of the need to support the emotional health and wellbeing of those living with long term...

Julian John, 50, collapsed in 2005 due to a brain injury that developed from food poisoning. Losing the ability to stand, walk and talk, he was housebound for three years. After undergoing five years of intense physical therapy in the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London, he was able to regain almost all function, aspects of his life are still limited due to his disability. Founder of Disability Confident business Delsion Ltd., Julian has excelled in his work life through...

Lleswyl2021: Friday 26th November 19:00 – 23:00Live-streamed to you at no costSecure your free tickets from https://lleswyl.eventbrite.co.uk Lleswyl (Daring to Dream’s online Wellbeing Festival) will truly be an experience not to be missed. By producing Lleswyl, the charity Daring to Dream aims to achieve two very specific things. Firstly, to reach out to those living with chronic illness or disability, to bring a festival-at-home experience to them; since getting to live gigs is not an option...

As a young and ambitious charity whose mission is to support the emotional health and wellbeing of adult patients in Wales, one of the ways in which we do this is transforming patient day rooms, relatives’ rooms, and quiet rooms in hospital. We are thrilled to announce the completion another two such rooms in the University Hospital of Wales (UHW) in the last month: the relatives’ room and quiet room in critical care. Rooms such as these are normally very dismal and bleak, both in décor and...

Friday November 26th 19:00 – 22:30 Register for your free tickets: https://lleswyl.eventbrite.co.uk Daring to Dream is a young and ambitious charity whose mission is to support the emotional health and wellbeing of adult patients in Wales. Illness (acute and chronic) and disability can be incredibly isolating, and very emotionally demanding too. The charity provides wellbeing support through tangible means such as creating safe, non-clinical havens for patients and families in hospitals as...

This project developed from simply the Quiet Room (on A3) to include the Relatives’ Room (on B3) also. It has been slower to progress, owing to covid-related pressures on staff and facilities. However, the time is now right we are glad to say! The Quiet Room is a safe space, a cwtsh, for the very tough (and all too frequent) clinician / family conversations about their loved one, for the family member(s) to discuss freely, and to grieve. The Relatives’ Room provides a separate safe haven to...

On December 31st 2020, Daring to Dream experimented with its very first online #WinterFestival. Aware of how much we are all missing live music, and also that going out or having friends or family round was a total ‘no-no’ on December 31st last year, we decided to test out an online festival. Arranged within days, we were also focused on raising funds in order to transform the Quiet Room in Critical Care at University Hospital of Wales. So, by connecting with individual musicians from family,...

We are thrilled to announce that the prestigious local Cardiff-based business, Fabulous Welshcakes Ltd, have adopted Daring to Dream as  their charity for 2021. With shops in Castle Arcade and Mermaid Quay and a strong online presence and sales at https://www.fabulouswelshcakes.co.uk/buy-online  their products have huge appeal to so many. ‘Fabulous Welshcakes are immensely proud to support Daring To Dream throughout 2021, the work they are doing in our local hospitals is very worthwhile and...

Against many odds and with lots of help from Gail Prosser (ward manager and her colleagues), General Surgery at University Hospital of Wales now have a safe and comforting space for patients and families. A cwtsh for private and supportive conversations, all furnishings provided by Daring to Dream. Every Quiet Room needs to literally be a cwtsh, a safe haven. Quiet Rooms provide a peaceful and safe space in which to allow families to connect with huge emotions,  express confusion, hurt, fear,...

We are excited to announce the start of our journey in working together with Radio Glamorgan. We are taking our first steps together, both committed to the importance of music in supporting and connecting with patients who are at home or on hospital wards. Radio Glamorgan began in 1967 at the Cardiff Royal Infirmary (CRI). A few year later, they then moved to their current home at the University Hospital of Wales and for a few decades their studios were housed within the basement. However,...

We recognise that many, many people live with ongoing and debilitating chronic conditions and also life-shortening conditions; we know that this is emotionally really, really tough. Therefore, we are developing ways to reach out and support outpatients who are seeking support for their emotional wellbeing. One way we can do this is to connect you all to the extra help for your mental wellbeing that is available across Wales, online and over the phone. These services are safe, free and you do...

Over the years, being in hospital and seeing your loved one battling to stay alive is draining for anyone. You do not realise the impact it has on you as you are trying your hardest to be strong for them and somehow contain your emotions. At times, the word and place “Hospital” can feel as though it is a daunting place to be. This is why emotional support for patients but also for their families is crucial; it allows people to see the true colours of Hospital, which is in fact a place filled...

At the final Leading Wales Awards & Legacy Dinner in September 2019, we formally launched the new charitable fund, Daring to Dream, which is part of the legacy of the Awards. Sophie Howe (Future Generations Commissioner for Wales and the fund’s first patron) together with Dr Nav Masani (Assistant Medical Director and Consultant Cardiologist from Cardiff & Vale University Health Board) both spoke eloquently, persuasively and with much compassion. They outlined from their personal and...