The Architectural Heritage Fund has awarded the Welsh Norwegian Society a grant of £4,000 which will help the society in its efforts to save the Norwegian Church in Cardiff Bay. The Welsh Norwegian Society is appealing for match funding to the public who love this iconic building and the hundreds of performers, artists and community organisations that have been a part of its story in the years since Princess Märtha Louise of Norway officially reopened the Norwegian Church in 1992….

People who need wheelchairs and other mobility aids during the coronavirus crisis do not have to go without because of the national emergency. That’s the message from the British Red Cross, which provides short-term loans of wheelchairs and other mobility aids across the UK. The Red Cross is working in 70 hospitals, providing mobility aids that assist with patient discharge, while most of its 100+ community-based mobility centres remain open so people can order and collect items like wheelchairs. In…

Pembrokeshire-born Ann Likeman hosted the special Singing for the Brain performance for Alzheimer’s Society last Thursday to help thousands banish the lockdown blues. Critically-acclaimed actress Vicky, whose grandmother had dementia, joined Ann via a video link for the sing-a-long… and  the broadcast has now achieved an audience reach of 210,000, with 1,400 people adding comments. Two other celebrities whose lives have been touched by dementia also supported the event. Scouting For Girls frontman Roy Stride, whose mother had early-onset dementia,…

St Giles Hotels in the United Kingdom announced the creation of the Uplift Fund as part of its ongoing “Hotels with Heart” initiative. The initiative was formed five years ago to positively impact those less fortunate in the hotels’ communities through meaningful causes that matter to the hotels’ teams and the guests it serves around the globe. To help alleviate the burden and stress of its team members in the U.K., St Giles London and St Giles Heathrow hotels’ leadership team, spearheaded…

World-renowned jazz singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Melody Gardot, put a call out to musicians across the globe to perform in place of a standard orchestra on her eagerly-awaited new single – entitled ‘From Paris With Love’ via Decca Records to benefit healthcare workers and other musicians. Like many, amidst the constraints of this pandemic, Gardot has been forced to put the recording of her newest studio album on hold.  The situation has inspired her to launch a personal initiative dedicated to musicians from around the world who…

What an unusual and challenging few weeks it has been due to the pandemic we are all facing, and it’s not over yet sadly. Every day we are faced with new challenges, changes to laws, potential job losses, activity losses and most terrifyingly, lives lost. All of this has had an understandable impact on everyone, their health and well-being, financial stability and security, relationships and sense of being. It must be incredibly hard for those who have lost business, jobs,…

British summertime has ‘officially arrived’, hopefully bringing some sunshine and warmth along with the longer days. Self-isolating at home has led me to make some rather wonderful decisions based in my need for something productive to keep me going; and the one particular decision I made yesterday may just inspire a few of this year’s articles (or all of them!) . Whilst aimlessly scrolling on the glorious Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest feeds that I have become quite obsessed with, a…

Here’s a top tip.  She Who Won’t Leave Home and I were recently given a very large bottle of rose wine which could only fit in the fridge if we removed the veg from the veg drawer.  The veg had to go.  Of course, once uncorked, it could not go back in since it had to lay down, thus giving us 1.5 litres to drink in one session.  Not impossible of course but certainly a challenge.  Then came the moment…

In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Health Minister has today (Tuesday 5th May) announced new arrangements to ensure people who are shielding or self-isolating can continue to get their prescription medicines in partnership with the National Pharmacy Association, Wales’ third sector organisations and Royal Mail. The arrangements will support community pharmacies and dispensing doctors to allocate deliveries to volunteer drivers where people do not have family, friends or neighbours who can collect their prescriptions for them.  Working with the National…

‘LOCKDOWN’ by Michael James   Lockdown is a prison protocol that prevents people or information from leaving an area. It can also be used to protect people from a threat or other external event.  (Edited from Wikipedia).  Sounds about right for the position we find ourselves in at the moment. Lockdown, as we have become used to during the COVID-19 Pandemic, has made us prisoners in our own homes and prevents us from leaving an area, except for very limited and…