This year I have decided to raise money for the Arts for Health and Wellbeing Programme by running the Cardiff Half Marathon. As most people know, visual arts has always been a passion of mine from a young age and has given me the strength to find myself. My mental health took a turn back when I was in high school when I experienced my first anxiety attack and now at 27 can still be quite challenging but I found through photography a way to manage.

Photography became my comfort pillow, I would photograph anything and everything to feel safe and to feel at ease and this is where I strongly believe any form of art can be incredibly therapeutic and improve a person’s health and wellbeing, evidence shows that art can reduce stress and anxiety levels and from personal experience this is what it has done for me.

I have been working freelance for the Arts for Health and Wellbeing Programme since September 2021 as their Photographer. The Programme offers so much support to staff members, patients and to the whole community in Cardiff and Vale. I want to fundraise as much money as I can for the Arts for Health and Wellbeing Programme for so many reasons! But the most important reason for me is because Arts for Health and Wellbeing as a whole needs more recognition and appraisal, it has so much success and potential with changing and improving lives as evidently shown through studies.

This Programme means a lot to me and I know it will/does mean a lot to others. It is so empowering and I am proud to be the first person to run the Cardiff Health Marathon for the Programme, Arts for Health and Wellbeing.

By donating to the Arts for Health and Wellbeing fund, managed by the Cardiff & Vale Health Charity, you will be ensuring that we can continue to improve the lives of people in Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan with the creative arts. From brining the joy of music to patients on wards, to improving the environment of our hospitals for all who use them, to increasing our arts offering in the community to help improve peoples health and wellbeing and reduce the likelihood of them ending up in hospital. Art has the power to do all of this and more and your kind donation will mean that it will.