Claire Morgan 07/05/2025 Member Stories

It’s been a while!  We’re still living in Resolven and we still feel a bit isolated sometimes.  There are no early morning buses now – there used to be one around 7 am, but it’s now around 8 ish.

I work for West Glamorgan People First and we did a survey about the buses. We asked people to give their views and then we held an event and invited the bus companies to attend.  Most of the companies came, except the one that I really wanted to ask questions to.  That was very disappointing.

I have certainly learnt something so far this year.  I fell over a drain cover that was sticking out of the ground and hurt myself in January.  I broke my hand and needed an operation to fix it. I’ve put a claim in.

I really had a taste of what it’s like to be disabled and to rely on other people.  I was lucky it was my right hand (I am left-handed), but I learnt how hard it was to do everyday things like shopping. Because you can’t get your shopping in the bag with a broken hand.  Some people were really kind but others couldn’t be bothered to help me.

I found it much harder than when I broke my leg years ago.  I couldn’t even open a sandwich packet!  When you realise you can’t do something, it makes you annoyed and depressed.  I had the operation in Singleton Hospital in Swansea and the staff were really good – they knew I was terrified of needles.

It’s been a rough ride for us this year – my hours of work have been cut down a bit because of lack of funding. That’s having an impact on my wife and me.

I volunteer for the Regional Partnership Board too – we’ve been doing events this year to let people know what we do and encourage people to get involved.

I’ve just been appointed to the All Wales People First Board of Trustees too – this is a new experience for me and I’m excited that I got the position.  It’s an important role.  I thought it might be too complicated for me but I wanted to give it a try.  I think I might struggle with the finance side of things but we’ll see how I get on!