Author: Rhys Gregory

BHF Cymru has thanked rural communities across Gwent and Monmouthshire for their support at a Family Fun Day which raised £1,000 for the charity. The Wentwood Young Farmers group organised the event with an afternoon of family games, competitions and street food. On behalf of Wentwood YFC, Nerys Lewis thanked the Willett family for hosting and said: “We’re very pleased to have raised £1,000, which will help the BHF create new treatments and discover new cures for heart and circulatory diseases. Thank you to everyone who came along and donated to this wonderful cause.” In Wales 340,000 people are living…

Chloe Evans, 30, from Pencoed in Wales will appear on Channel 4’s Aldi’s Next Big Thing on Thursday 17th November. The food producer owns Lilo’s Handmade, which creates artisan pasta in unique colours and flavours. Chloe was picked from hundreds of applicants competing for a life changing contract to stock Aldi stores nationwide. Hosted by Anita Rani, of Countryfile and BBC Radio 4 and Chris Bavin, of Britain’s Best Home Cook and Eat Well for Less, the six-part series sees suppliers compete in categories such as dinners, baked goods, treats and store cupboard essentials. Products are presented to Julie Ashfield,…

When Jayne Young’s employer shut up shop in the aftermath of Covid, she decided to take the plunge and relaunch the business herself. And now, her impressive new hair salon Crowning Glory in Tredegar is proving a great success and playing a part in the rejuvenation of the town. Jayne spent £3000 refurbishing the premises in Commercial Street, reorganising the space to make it more efficient and welcoming for customers, and allowing for expansion in the future. The previous business had focussed more on beauty than hair-styling and Jayne thinks the balance is now right. “It was beauty services that…

The Development Bank of Wales was among a number of global backers which supported international fintech startup AGAM in a recently-closed funding round. Headquartered in Cardiff, AGAM aims to revolutionise lending, delivering an AI-based credit scoring service to people without a credit history or those looking to secure small loans. AGAM – meaning “advance” in Bangla – uses an algorithm based on an individual’s financial literacy, access to finance, resilience and confidence to judge their suitability for borrowing, and also provides modules on financial education to help boost their credit scores. Its digital nano-loans service platform, PrimeAgrim, was successfully piloted…

Principality Building Society has reaffirmed its commitment to paying the real Living Wage to its colleagues by becoming an accredited employer by the Living Wage Foundation. After listening to feedback from its colleagues across the organisation about the difficulties they are facing in to as a result of the cost of living crisis, Principality has also announced it will focus pay increases for lower paid roles this year, to support people as prices continue to spiral. The real Living Wage is the only UK wage rate that is voluntarily paid by over 11,000 UK businesses who believe their staff deserve a wage…

Fans of Marco Pierre White will be licking their lips this Black Friday with the chance to snap up a special offer that will enable them to purchase a £100 voucher for just £60. Redeemable across the Marco Pierre White Restaurants estate*, including his Cardiff and Swansea Steakhouses, provides unbelievable value for money for those wanting to treat foodie friends or family or just to spoil themselves and have a delicious meal out – especially during the current cost of living crisis. With Black Friday having now become the annual shopping bonanza that sees bargain hunters snap up unbelievable offers,…

SmallSpark Space Systems, a Cardiff based aerospace and space technology venture, has secured a development contract with the UK’s Ministry of Defence, via the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) to use its Moore.AI technology to accelerate development of novel solid rocket motor configurations, for a broad range of applications. The proposal, which has seen significant support from the MOD, is one of the first to explore the direct application of AI-based assistive tools to engineers in the defence industry tackling novel problems without historical datasets. The contract, worth £292,565.75, within DASA’s Rapid Innovation Cycle, will see Moore.AI’s optimisation technologies adapted…

26th October was a life changing night for lucky bingo lover Karen Carpanini at Mecca Bingo on Carmarthen Road, Swansea, when she won a whopping £50,000 jackpot on the National Bingo Game, just ten days before her retirement.    Mum of two, Karen, 60, has been a nurse at Morriston Hospital for 42 years and officially retired from work this Saturday (5th November).    A regular customer at Mecca Swansea, she began playing bingo at the age of 18 at the bingo club in nearby Sketty, when Mecca was known as Top Rank, and her dad was a bingo caller there for 30 years.   Now a loyal player at Mecca Swansea, Karen says she loves the ‘homey atmosphere’ of…

Business leaders are backing trailblazing plans to produce low carbon hydrogen for industry and store CO2 under the seabed off the coast of North Wales. The North Wales Mersey Dee Business Council say the HyNet project will provide a once-in-a-generation boost, pumping £17 billion into the cross border regional economy, creating 55,000 permanent jobs and 6,000 new construction jobs each year in the process. At the same time, experts estimate the switch away from fossil fuels to low carbon hydrogen for businesses will potentially save 10 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year being emitted into the atmosphere by 2030.…

Spire Cardiff Hospital has received another excellent outcome from an inspection by Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW) – the second in a row since a visit in October 2020. HIW completed the unannounced inspection in July 2022, reviewing the hospital for quality of patient experience; safe and effective care; and the quality of management and leadership. In the inspection report, all patients surveyed rated the care and service provided at Spire Cardiff as either very good or good. Patients said they were comfortable and cared for in a professional and dignified manner. Processes were in place to help patients give their…