Claire Morgan 02/02/2026 Member StoriesNews

I’ve just finished cleaning and tidying my flat with my support staff. They’ve just left now.  I’m wearing my Sponge Bob shirt this morning – I love colour, I’m a very colourful man.

I live on my own and have support staff come in for a few hours on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. I get a bit lonely when they’re not around.  I sometimes overthink when I’m on my own and I text my support but often they can’t answer because they’re with other people.  Support staff are really important to me – I think I’d go downhill without them. 

The agency are very good – if they’re going to be using a different support worker, they ask them to shadow with an established support worker first, so I get chance to get to know them.

I send support pictures of what I’ve been up to but they tell me they’ll reply when they can.  I stick to professional boundaries and I can’t be friends with them on Facebook for instance.

I text my mum a lot too – she’s told me I can only call her once a day! Dad hasn’t been too well but he’s ok now and I have a brother, sister in law and nephew and niece too. I see quite a bit of my family. 

I do have my lovely cat Hayley Goggins who is 17.  She lives with me and she’s great company. She wakes me up every morning with a loud miaow because she wants her breakfast.  I do wish I had more support though because I do get lonely.

I try to keep busy on the days when I don’t have support.  So on Mondays and Tuesdays I keep busy with my volunteering at the British Heart Foundation shop and my paid work at the Co-op.  I work for two hours per week at the Co-op collecting trolleys, helping customers and other staff. I always try to compliment people on what they’re wearing, and I get on very well with my colleagues.

I also work for Insight as part of the Peer Led Team. I’m on a rota to be on duty looking after online meetings, making sure everyone’s ok.  This is quite a responsible job – we have to let the host know if anyone is upset and then the host phones a staff member from the on-call rota.

I have a YouTube channel where I upload songs I’ve written. I have 124 followers.  I go to the Writers’ Circle at the library to write poems and to Art class on Fridays. There’s Drumming on Friday mornings and a dance class on Saturdays.  I like to be out and about – I’m a bit of a social butterfly.  I have a bus pass and my support staff can travel free on the bus with me which is great.

I have a fab Gig Buddy called Mark too.  We’ve done lots of stuff together and next week we’re going to the Iron Works in Shropshire for an afternoon out.

I’m part of Conwy Connect self advocacy group and we meet online on Mondays and then we do face to face meetings every so often.