Fascinating article in The Guardian – in support of social health. Kasley Killam, MPH (a social health expert and author) states “Research has proven that social health – wellbeing that comes from connection – is as essential as food and water, but it is vastly underappreciated” “The problem with traditional health advice is that it overlooks one of the most important ingredients: human connection.” What is social health? Social health is the aspect of overall health and wellbeing that comes...

We are so pleased that Cobalt HR selected our live music project in the #CarefortheElderlyWards at #PrincessofWalesHospital Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board for their #generousdonation of £300. That donation is the cost of a full afternoon of live music, led by two professional musicians, across each of the three wards, for the patients. An afternoon of joy and smiles! Thank you so much Cobalt HR for your support. Daring to Dream obtained a £1,850 grant from Tŷ Cerdd - Music Centre...

Headlined by Afro Cluster, Lleswyl 2024 remains accessible to everyone, for free, on our YouTube channel of the same name. Lleswyl 2024 is: "A wonderful watch!" "I was really moved and impressed." “The balance of combining music and conversations worked so well and powerfully." "Lleswyl was a superb production." "It was entertaining, informative, educational, and polished." Everyone involved in the production of Lleswyl 2024 - Ratio Studios, all the hugely talented musicians, our hosts, and...

As the curtains draw to a close on Lleswyl 2024, I find myself filled with immense gratitude and a heart brimming with joy. Lleswyl, Daring to Dream’s Wellbeing Festival, has been nothing short of magical. It's been an evening filled with upliftment, joy, and unforgettable moments. As a member of the Ray of Light Warblers choir, I feel privileged to have been a part of this extraordinary experience. Our Choir would also like to express their gratitude for the opportunity to experience the...

We are delighted to announce that joining our hosts Sian Lloyd, Jason Harrold and Tumi Williams on the festival studio sofa, is Andrew Jenkins. Andrew can currently been seen on iplayer in the hit BBC1 reality TV show ‘The Traitors’, which aired throughout January 2024. In 1999, Andrew suffered a horrendous car accident at the age of 21. He was pronounced dead on the side of the road and then spent 4 weeks in a coma fighting for his life. Doctors told his family he had severe brain injury and...

How is Daring to Dream seeking to support the emotional health and wellbeing of adults in Wales living with physical illness?   Emotional space to talk about long-term health issues: Firstly, the charity raises awareness of the need to support emotional health of adults in Wales living with illness. We encourage everyone to give those we are close to, the space (literally) for them to talk about and express their emotions relating to diagnosis, treatments, and the daily impact of living...

Friday 23rd February, 19:00 – 22:00 … switch on our live-stream, assemble your loved-ones and make space to talk. A watch party is a social gathering where a group of people come together to watch something collectively – think Eurovision, the Oscars or even the season finale of an epic TV show – and now Lleswyl. The group might gather in person; in someone’s house, a care home, a theatre or a school. Alternatively, with the rise of streaming services and online communication platforms it...

Live-streamed by Daring to Dream to your home
Friday 23rd February 2024 – 19:00 – 22:00 For one night only in February, Daring to Dream will broadcast world-class musicians into homes around Wales, to create the ultimate at-home festival experience. They’ve secured bands who are regulars on the festival circuit – Green Man, Womad, Glastonbury and now Lleswyl! From the field to the front room, there are no worries about bad weather, poor catering, or the state of the toilets at Lleswyl! That’s...

Our 2023 Summer Ball & Auction on July 7th was a wonderfully successful night, which was not only fun but marked a step change in the charity’s development, with our first project within Cwm Taf Morgannwg’s health board. It was a celebratory, good fun and action-packed evening. Following a drinks reception our evening began with one of the amazing Sing With Us Choirs from Tenovus Cancer Care. They portray so well the joy and emotional ‘pick-me-up’ that music provides, as well as an...

With our ‘pick-me-up-packages’, we are also giving a gift card explain about the packages. The cards are printed on seed paper and we want to share the planting instructions for everyone: • In Spring or Summer, when it is warm, soak the paper in water and tear into small pieces • Place in a pot of compost and very lightly sprinkle more compost on top • Keep the soil and paper moist (but not soaking wet) in a warm and light environment • Once your small plants have grown, place the pot outside...

Join us for a fun, celebratory, musical, and fundraising evening, in support of the emotional health and wellbeing of adults in Wales living with illness. Friday 27 Sept 2024 (7 til late),voco St David’s Hotel, Cardiff Bay, CF10 5SD Tickets only £49.50 each or Table of 10 only £475.00 Supporting young cancer patients in West Wales:Join us for a great night and help us fundraise for the first treatment room in Wales - outside of Cardiff – specifically for young cancer patients in West Wales who...

Daring to Dream is currently working with the nursing team and Estates in the Care for the Elderly wards in the Princess of Wales Hospital, Bridgend, to transform both their patient day rooms. With three wards and up to 70 patients, at any time, in their care, the creation of inviting, comfortable, warm, and safe dayrooms, is essential to enable the ward teams to support even better the physical and emotional needs of their patients. Improved and inviting day rooms will enable staff to help...

Following Amy’s Ball last September we have been developing different ways of providing support for the emotional health and wellbeing of young adult cardiac patients under the care of staff teams at University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff. We are delighted to be able to announce that we are now about to pilot our gifts: ‘pick-me-up gift boxes’. We hope that is just what they will be – a lovely, surprise ‘pick-me-up’! Each gift box contains something to eat (tasty and non-allergenic crisps and...

We are delighted to welcome Lewis Gray as he begins a freelance contract with the Daring to Dream team. Lewis Gray has joined us, part time, as a virtual executive assistant, thanks to funding we have just received from the Postcode Community Trust. The Postcode Community Trust recently awarded Daring to Dream an unrestricted funding grant of £11,700. We wish to thank not only the trust for allocating this grant, but also all the players who support their work by contributing to raising the...

Lleswyl 2023 had a new set, new bands, showcasing new charities, live guests, and even more partners – indeed, oh, what a night! Feedback has been fantastic with comments such as:"The diversity of acts was fantastic and the format worked really well.""The variety of music catering for all who attended""Loved the ‘on the sofa chats’, dancing and music ""Great range of diverse music, the presenters Sian and Jason were great and some of the stories were inspirational""Loved getting together with...

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....

Each year, 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...