Daring to Dream is delighted to have a committed and growing network of Ambassadors. Our ambassadors each act as a champion for the charity, help spread the word about the charity’s work within their communities, creating new community partnerships to increase awareness and support events and income generating campaigns. The support of our ambassadors is so important to Daring to Dream. We are extremely grateful to each of them for the skills and commitment they bring to the charity and...

Daring to Dream, the charity that supports the emotional health and wellbeing for those living with long-term physical health conditions, has launched its first official charity single Here Together. The emotive song is written and performed by Bridgend College music student Lylia Young, who regularly takes part in the charity’s ‘Spaces to Sing’ sessions at Princess of Wales Hospital, bringing live music to the patients, their families, carers, and staff on the Care for the Elderly and...

Help us turn up the volume on emotional health in Wales. We invite you to a spectacular evening at Hilton Cardiff as our seven week #HearUsSingWithUs campaign reaches its grand finale. This vital journey begins on April 23rd at the Norwegian Church, where we launch our first-ever charity single, ‘Here Together.’ Composed and performed by the gifted Lylia Young, this moving piece is more than just a song—it is a powerful voice for Wales, for health, and for the emotional journey of those living...

Daring to Dream, partnered with Cranfield Trust to strengthen its long-term sustainability. With support from an experienced volunteer consultant, we have developed a robust business plan and financial forecast to transition from founder-led delivery to a more resilient operational structure. The project has positioned Daring to Dream for sustainable growth, stronger governance and expanded impact across Wales. We completed a soft but important re-brand as part of the process. We became Daring...

Around 1.2 million adults in Wales – almost half of the adult population – are living with illness, meaning nearly every family, street, workplace and community is touched by illness in some way, highlighting the urgent importance of emotional health support. Lleswyl 2026, Daring to Dream’s free, inclusive festival event was streamed live from 7pm on Friday 20 February 2026 – making visible five years of work and impact by the charity and reaching out to all those for whom going to live gigs...

Daring to Dream, together with senior staff at Princess of Wales Hospital, were delighted to celebrate the opening of the Acute Care for the Elderly (ACE) dayroom at Princess of Wales Hospital on Thursday 29th January. A massive spike in infections meant we did need to hold our celebration online, but that didn’t dampen our spirits. Over the time of liaising with Princess of Wales Hospital, we were able to initially establish our ‘Spaces to Sing’ of fortnightly live music in both the Acute...

Lleswyl 2026: Our first ever hybrid #Lleswyl will be live-streamed and broadcast live from 7pm on 20 February! Our first ever charity fundraising single will be revealed at #Lleswyl2026 Daring to Dream’s new charity single A track written especially by Lylia Young, a Bridgend College undergraduate music student. Lylia is part of a team of musicians who deliver Daring to Dream - the Emotional Health Charity’s ‘Space to Sing’ in wards at Princess of Wales Hospital, Bridgend. What an amazing...

After a pilot project, Daring to Dream has been providing fortnightly live music (our ‘Space to Sing’) for patients in Princess of Wales Hospital, Bridgend for most of 2025. We have a great team of musicians, undergraduates at Bridgend College, who we contract to lead these joyous sessions. Our ‘Space to Sing’ is for patients and their visitors on two ward areas: The Care for the Elderly patients, Wards 5 & 6, and The Dementia patients on Ward 15 Our ‘Spaces to Sing’ are really special...

We are the Emotional Health Charity and we are Daring to Dream Diolch yn fawr iawn In our bank account today has arrived the first year’s allocation from The Postcode Community Trust. On behalf of everyone at team Daring to Dream – a massive thank you for this. We were touched too by your feedback about our application and your wish that ‘this funding will have a big impact on your organisation and community’. We will do our utmost to ensure that this funding makes a huge difference. May we...

Sophie Howe, The First Future Generations Commissioner, in Wales and the World. Sophie was the world’s first Future Generations Commissioner. She was tasked with advocating for the interests of generations to come and holding public institutions accountable for delivering long-term change. Her support endorses Daring to Dream’s contribution to the Well-Being Goals in Wales. Sophie Howe is an advisor to governments, institutions and corporates on embedding wellbeing economics and future...

We were deeply saddened to hear last week of the passing of Lesley Meek, one of Daring to Dream’s very first committed supporters. A lovely lady, who loved her life, and lived it to the full, in spite of so much adversity arising from her congenital heart condition. We were privileged to have Lesley's support for our charity. She understood very well indeed, from firsthand experience of her own many hospital visits and stays, the importance of ‘spaces to talk’ for patients, their families and...

Yesterday, I spent a lot of the day in the Care for the Elderly Ward 5 Dayroom, as we ‘dressed’ the room, ensuring we created a ‘homely’, non-clinical and inviting space for patients and their families. Elderly patients can decondition within 24 hours In our short video clip below, Catherine Theron (Head of Nursing at Princess of Wales Hospital), describes the need for the Care for the Elderly (COTE) patients, who come into hospital with a multitude of conditions. The ward teams are aiming to...

We are The Emotional Health Charity - and we are Daring to Dream We had invited Sarah Murphy MS, Welsh Government Minister for Mental Health & Wellbeing to join us at our highly successful ‘Making Space to talk about Emotional Health and Living well with Illness’ last week, but her diary was already over committed. Instead, she kindly offered to support us with a video, which offer we accepted with alacrity, of course! Welsh Government’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy for 2025- 2035...

On 5 October, the streets of Cardiff were alive with energy, determination, and community spirit as over 27,000 runners took part in the Cardiff Half Marathon. Among the 27,000 were 10 remarkable individuals running not just for themselves, but for thousands of people across Wales who live every day with the emotional challenges arising from living with long-term illness. Beth, Ryan, Joe, Holly, Asia (Callum), Glyn, Scott, Steph amd Sarah They all took part in the Cardiff Half for Daring to...

Early in July, I was fortunate to be included in the line-up of speakers for TEDx Bute Street event which was sponsored by Rhianon Passmore MS. Thank you so much to the selection panel of Professor Dylan Jones-Evans OBE, Matthew Hyde and Chris J. Birch. A fantastic opportunity for me to talk about Daring to Dream on such an important platform and spread the word about #emotionalhealth and its importance for all of us living with #chronicillness.    Our mission at Daring to Dream is:...

Daring to Dream was delighted to welcome a visit from David Holdsworth, CEO of the Charity Commission, which took place at University Hospital of Wales this week. Jessica Williams, Policy and Wales Stakeholder Manager for the Charity Commission, joined him on the visit. Daring to Dream trustees (Barbara Chidgey, John Chown and Nav Masani) were supported by Kindre Morgan and Sarah Finch (specialist nurses from the Adult Congenital Heart Disease team). It was lovely to meet both David and Jess,...

Thank you for your support of Daring to Dream's Space to Sing for the Care for the Elderly and Dementia Patients at Princess of Wales Hospital Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board. Seren and Ffion will be back in a couple of weeks, following a short summer break, with their fortnightly sessions for the patients there. They not only bring music, they bring joy, smiles, evoke memories and help patients connect with each other and their families. It is a joy to be part of. Do please watch...

November 2024, the founding trustees of Daring to Dream, Barbara Chidgey, John Chown, #NavMasani took a courageous and strategic decision to focus our efforts on just two major things throughout 2025: Continued quality delivery of our established charitable activities and Making significant progress in implementing our primary strategic goal: 'Building a resilient and sustainable organisation' The most challenging step: Daring to Dream is taking the most challenging step in any organisation's...

Such a boost to get a lovely email from 2025 Mental Health & Wellbeing Wales Awards to tell us that Daring to Dream are finalists! Inspirational Charitable Organisation "We are delighted to inform you that Daring to Dream have been shortlisted as a finalist for the Mental Health & Wellbeing Wales Awards 2025 in the category of Inspirational Charitable Organisation." Daring to Dream is the emotional (not mental) health charity Not many charities talk about #emotionalhealth and its...

Daring to Dream wishes to give a heartfelt thankyou to Jenny Hibbert and her Bridgend Camera Club colleagues. As the Care for the Elderly patients finally move into their new ‘home’ in Wards 5 & 6 at Princess of Wales Hospital, the Camera Club team have replenished our stock of local photos. They are wonderful! Amazing photos of local sites including the iconic Coney Island Fun Fair, open for its very last season. Jenny herself took the photo below of the bridge at Bryngarw. Wall...

Yesterday I got an unexpected but very welcome email from Rachel Bran, Senior Sister at the Leri Cancer Unit in Bronglais Hospital. Rachel was keen to provide another update on the use and value of the Bluebell Room in the unit; the room Daring to Dream had collaborated with Hywel Dda University Health Board to help bring about in the refurbed outpatients unit. “We are enjoying the Bluebell Room so much, it is going to be used for Cancer Counselling service 2 days a week as well as being used...

Friday 13 June at Hilton Cardiff was a wonderful evening, as we wished Engaging, happy, full of warmth and kindness, strengthening ‘old’ relationships, starting new ones, raising awareness, and raising funds. Importantly celebrating Amy Penn’s life and legacy with her family. Daring to Dream taking another huge step forward. Hosted by the fabulous Jason Harrold Host and Compere, with the amazing Choirs For Good Cardiff, we all enjoyed an excellent meal, good company and our auction, which...

This Friday at Hilton Cardiff we hold our annual Daring to Dream Ball & Auction. We are really excited about our forthcoming evening. It is a great chance to get together with so many who support our work and believe in the importance of emotional health as an enabler to living well with illness. For our fundraising we are putting young adults in Wales living with illness in the spotlight. Highlighting their need to talk about their own emotional responses to illness, celebrating the many...

Our second briefing event took place in Senedd Cymru, on 26 March, sponsored by Julie Morgan MS and supported by Sarah Murphy MS, Welsh Government Minister for Mental Health & Wellbeing. Jason Harrold was our MC. Julie Morgan opened the event, with Barbara Chidgey speaking next positioning the emotional health agenda as a critical element to prevent mental illness. Other contributors were Dr Jen Daffin on behalf of Hapus, Public Health Wales and Platfform Wellbeing. Nav Masani, our...

The 2025 Daring to Dream Ball & Auction is supporting the emotional health and wellbeing of young adults in Wales living with illness. The funds raised will support initiatives that help create spaces to talk, such as singing and writing workshops, supercars experience events, and our gift packages. Date: Friday 13 June 2025 at Hilton Cardiff Dress code: Formal and colourful Arrival, drinks reception: 19:00 Guests seated for 3 -course meal: 19:30 Event Details: The Ball will take place...

We are hugely grateful The National Lottery Community Fund supported our application for “Lleswyl 2025 and Beyond”. Their support is to ensure that Lleswyl is definitely not #foronenightonly but actually helps promote and encourage the development of small community based groups, ones that build friendships and support, and bring people living with illness together over a shared interest. One such community group who featured in #Lleswyl2025 are the Cwmbran Deaf Choir. As a charity, Daring to...

1.2 million adults live in Wales with at least one longstanding illness. 618,000 women in Wales live with at least one longstanding illness The 618,000 are all ages, live across all parts of Wales Irrespective of age, many endure extreme pain – night and day Irrespective of age, they endure ongoing treatments and new health challenges They lose friends, careers, hobbies, social life, mobility They start each day with determination and courage, to live their best, achieve their hopes and dreams...

Lleswyl 2025 is this Friday! Please spread the word amidst your family and friends! Huge thanks for your support!   Dear Friends - We’re excited to announce that Lleswyl 2025 is just around the corner! Please join Us for an Unforgettable Evening! Date: Friday, 21st February 2025Time: 7 PMLocation: YouTube Channel - Lleswyl 2025 Watch HereCost: Free! Fun! For Everyone! What is Lleswyl? The term "Lleswyl" translates to "Wellbeing Festival" in Welsh. This event is dedicated to supporting the...

Daring to Dream, the charity whose mission is to support the emotional health and wellbeing of adults in Wales living with physical illness, held its first formal briefing event - ‘Making space to talk about emotional health’. Opened by Sarah Murphy MS, Welsh Government Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing, the briefing was attended by patients, medical and health board staff, and representatives from many health charities. During the event, the charity’s founder and chair Barbara Chidgey...

I was so pleased and touched that Daring to Dream was a finalist in the #WelshCharityAwards in 'The Most Influential Small Organisation' category. For our work, progress and impact to be recognised as a finalist in this category is #absolutelyfabulous - our trustees and guests certainly enjoyed celebrating as finalists at the Awards Dinner on Monday 25th November at the National Museum of Wales. We so enjoyed hearing about 27 individuals and organisations that are making such a difference in...