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Sister Sheila and Sister Lorraine volunteer at the food bank in Merthyr Tydfil – they shared stories of how they face prejudice when doing charity work. They both said that a select few of people in the Merthyr area have prejudice views towards the food bank. I was told that a lot of people within the area believe that the food bank only helps Polish and Romanian families, Sheila and Lorraine believe that this attitude comes from exiting the EU.

Artist Peter Archer, 70, of Six Bells, has been nominated for the Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize, which recognises contemporary British artists working in painting and drawing. His oil painting Cliff Life will be exhibited at the Mall galleries in London in March. Mr Archer paints landscapes from imagination rather than ‘real’ scenes.

Staff Nurse Joanne Jones, 48 works at the Special Baby Care Unit in Prince Charles Hospital, Mountain Ash, where she cares for premature babies. 

One in three midwives working in the NHS in Wales from March 2016 were aged above 50 years old which has caused concern with the large number of midwives reaching retirement age there will not be enough younger midwives trained and ready to keep up with the growing number of births.

Student Midwife Kimberly Ashley, 33 is currently studying on a direct entry midwifery course at Swansea University.

“The responsibility is immense, but I am really enjoying the course. I chose to study over a period of 3 years because being a single mother I don’t have the time to be working and studying full time as I have to be there for my son. I have been lucky because I’ve had amazing mentors.”

She added..

“I have been very lucky as I never receive any negative feedback from the mothers I work with. They are very aware of who they want taking care of them though, and a question I often get asked is ‘do you have children yourself?’ I think the idea that if you have given birth yourself eases the minds of the mothers because they know that you’ve been through”.