Author: Rhys Gregory

A 22-year-old from Caerphilly has set up a sportswear company to help raise awareness of mental health and is donating 10% of his yearly profits to mental health charities. [aoa id=”1″] Ellis Smith, in his final year of Business Management at Cardiff Metropolitan University, has ADHD and OCD and found that exercising, in particular CrossFit, manages his condition day to day. He has used this personal experience to create his fitness and leisurewear brand, The Barbell Club, which also aims to promote mental health. The Barbell Club sells a range of products including t-shirts, hoodies and hats through an online…

Bouygues UK has been working in collaboration with learning technology company Aspire 2Be and a consortium of industry and education partners to incorporate a range of construction resources into the new school curriculum in Wales. Supported by The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB), the jointly designed Go Construct Educate resources will be available to every school, teacher and pupil across Wales from ages six – 16 and is aimed at encouraging young people to consider a future career in the construction industry. Ahead of its official launch in September, teachers and pupils gathered across Wales to attend GoConstruct ‘buildathons’ at…

Gareth Williams, Rhug Estate’s Poultry Manager, is celebrating a significant work anniversary this month having worked on the farm for 40 years. To commemorate the occasion Gareth has been awarded a Long Service Medal at the Royal Welsh Show. [aoa id=”1″] Gareth, who is from Llangollen, started in 1979, aged 17. He came to work for the former Lord Newborough, with the old shepherd, Wil Williams, for three weeks during his Easter holidays from Llysfasi College. After his three weeks were over he was offered a permanent position helping manage the farm’s 3,000 sheep. Gareth said, “I didn’t come from…

ASH Wales has urged Welsh Government to follow in England’s footsteps after proposals to end smoking by 2030 were announced. [aoa id=”1″]Under the plan contained in the Government’s Prevention Green Paper, every smoker being admitted to hospital would be offered help to quit. The paper proposes raising revenue to support smoking cessation services which would be focused on those groups most in need. It highlights the role that technology can play in delivering focussed, personalised support.[/aoa] The paper also proposes setting an ultimatum for the tobacco industry to make smoked tobacco obsolete by 2030 so that smokers would quit or…

AN INSPIRATIONAL entrepreneur is leading a campaign encouraging one million families to ditch their unhealthy lifestyles and follow a raw and living foods diet. [aoa id=”1″] Mark Bryant, founder of The Energise Academy, is on a mission to get more people to join his RAWvolution. He has already received a positive response from business owners and industry leaders keen to help him spread the word. Speaking at a Hartey Wealth Management event at Chester Grosvenor Hotel, Mark described how switching to a raw food diet helped him in his battle with cancer. [/aoa] Diagnosed with the condition at 37 years…

CUPP is a Welsh owned independent bubble tea company, based in Bristol. We see ourselves as bubble tea pioneers; striving to refine every element of the famous Taiwanese drink and to make it the freshest and healthiest bubble tea in the UK. [aoa id=”1″]Using housemade and fresh ingredients, including our own housemade fruit purees and brown sugar syrups along with fresh organic milk, great milk alternatives and loose leaf tea, we’re refining the way bubble tea should be made. We believe in using fresh ingredients, not artificial, sugary powders and syrups to flavour our bubble teas. CUPP are the only…

HSBC UK has provided a trio of funding deals worth nearly half a million pounds to young Welsh farmers, allowing them to diversify their farms, increase livestock numbers and enter new markets. [aoa id=”1″] Owners of Pearson Farming Limited in Conwy, Sam and Angharad Pearson, secured a five-figure loan from HSBC UK to assist with purchasing a one third share of a new 500-cow grass-based dairy herd on the North Wales coast in order to significantly increase milk production. In addition, a six-figure finance package from HSBC UK enabled 24-year-old farmer, Aled Jones from Llandinam, to build a new mobile…

Funding support is helping Swansea Council transform the city’s Hafod-Morfa Copperworks site. [aoa id=”1″] £1.1m has come from the Welsh Government’s Targeted Regeneration and Investment (TRI) Programme 2018-21. This funding will help refurbish former industrial sites in and around the Hafod-Morfa and White Rock sites. Robert Francis-Davies, the council’s cabinet member for investment, regeneration and tourism, said: “We’re turning the Copperworks area into something of which Swansea will be proud in future. [/aoa]“Multi-million pound investment is already being made there; this TRI funding will be another enormous help. “Swansea is a city on the up – the hundreds…

A man from Buckley, Flintshire, will cycle from Land’s End to John O’Groats, this week from 27 July – 08 August, to raise money for charity Parkinson’s UK. 54-year old, David Knight, is participating in the cycling event in memory of his late father-in-law, Derrick Harding, who had Parkinson’s. Parkinson’s is a progressive neurological condition for which there is currently no cure, and it affects around 148,000 people in the UK, including 121,927 in England. David said: “I am taking on this challenge in memory of my father-in-law who had Parkinson’s. He was a very outgoing person prior to Parkinson’s…

SPECIALIST advisors are wanted to help maximise the impact of the £1.3 billion Swansea Bay City Deal. [aoa id=”1″] Subject to approval at a meeting of the City Deal’s Joint Committee on Tuesday July 30, expressions of interest will soon be sought from experts in a number of sectors. Representatives from sectors including digital innovation, skills, energy, manufacturing, young people, transport, local development, retail, food and beverages, tourism, heavy industry, and micro business will be invited to apply. [/aoa] When needed, successful candidates will advise City Deal leaders including a private sector Economic Strategy Board and the decision-making Joint Committee.…