Claire Morgan 14/03/2025 Member StoriesNews

I’ve been in Cardiff twice in two weeks.  Cardiff is my favourite city – I love going there. 

I’m a self-advocate representative on the Learning Disability Ministerial Advisory Group (LDMAG) now and I travelled to Cardiff last week for my first meeting.  I was a bit nervous, but Tracey from AWPF was there to support. It was held in the Welsh Government offices in Cathays.

I had seen a post on Facebook that LDMAG were looking for more people with lived experience so I contacted Joe a few months ago.  A few weeks later, I had the papers!

LDMAG consists of reps from self advocacy groups and organisations like the National Centre for Mental Health,  Learning Disability Wales, Mencap and lots of other organisations along with reps from Welsh Government.  LDMAG advises Welsh Government on what people with learning disabilities and autism need.  There was lots of discussion and Tracey supported Kurtis and me to feedback our opinions.

LDMAG is another avenue for us to speak up which is what self-advocacy is all about.  We don’t want people to make assumptions about what people with learning disabilities need.  The next meeting is in June, so I will be back in Cardiff for that.

I also went to Cardiff this week to represent Anglesey as the deputy rep at AWPF’s National Council because Tracy, our current rep has been unwell.  It was such a privilege to attend. 

I use public transport a lot and I am confident to travel all the way to south Wales on my own now.  I’m also used to checking into hotels and things like that.

The National Council was really interesting, and we had a great introduction from Joe about roles and responsibilities. Everyone had the chance to say what they thought.  I brought up my self-advocacy group’s views on public transport in the area – lots of other more rural areas felt the same as us.

I saved the day (or rather the night!) at Nightclub on Tuesday night.  Gerraint had major tech issues, so he sent me his music list and I played the music for everyone.  It took a while before the music got going but we all had a great chat for over an hour before the music finally started.