Claire Morgan 16/01/2026 Member StoriesNews

I’ve just got home from my volunteering job at the British Heart Foundation shop in Bangor. I go every week between 10 am and 4 pm.  I price up products, rip up boxes, put the rubbish out, welcome customers and all sorts of things like that.  I bumped into someone from Café Nero out the back when I was putting the rubbish out today, so we had a good chinwag.  I had a chat with the bin men too!  And of course, with the other volunteers and the staff. It’s a great place to work – I started volunteering there 5 years ago and they’re lovely people.  Why would I want to leave? 

I’ve started doing art with Menter Fachwen again this year.  We did a 14 week course last year and I made a lovely calendar. We got a certificate last year too.  We used lots of different textiles, glue and paper.

Christmas was good – we stayed home.  The train service isn’t brilliant around that time of the year so we didn’t go to London.  I don’t like London when it’s too busy and I wouldn’t go to the fireworks or anything like that. 

Last time I was in London I went to Battersea where there was a really interesting southeast Asian market.  There was lots of lovely food and crafts, and I met lots of interesting people from different countries and cultures.  I love Asian food!

Talking of food, I’m still eating healthily with a low sugar and low carbohydrate diet because I was pre-diabetic. I eat lean meat like chicken and turkey and lots of fish and vegetables. I had a stationary bike for Christmas, and I’ve been doing a lot of cycling.

I designed my own workout – squats, crunches, push ups etc – I follow Joe Wicks and look for other workout videos on You Tube. It’s really important to stretch afterwards. I hope my fitness training and healthy eating has inspired others. 

I definitely feel better in myself for eating healthily and working out more.  I listened to the specialist doctor and I’ve been doing what they recommended.  It’s hard to talk to your GP at the moment – they don’t seem to have much time to chat to you.  Do you think the government says that they can only have a certain amount of time with each patient?

My colleagues are proud of me and they’re always asking for updates on how I’m doing.

I hope to be chatting to dental students next month and starting up lecturing the nursing students again. I attended the latest graduation ceremony before Christmas