Session 1: 16:00 SATURDAY 30TH JULY
Session 2: 14:00 Sunday 31st July
VENUE: WORKSHOP ROOM & on Zoom
PRICE: FREE
Anyone is welcome to join us for this open conversations which will take place in person in the workshop room at The Atrium and online via Zoom.
To attend in person, please visit the ticket desk just before the events to find out where to go.
To join via Zoom, please email us at poetryfestival@serenbooks.com with which session you would like to join and we will send you the link.
Daring to Dream is delighted to be the designated charity partner of Seren Cardiff Poetry Festival. Our charitable focus is to support the emotional health and wellbeing of adults in Wales who live with physical illness(es).
This facilitated conversation aims to explore the positive effects of “Reading and Writing” on emotional health and wellbeing, specifically within the context of those living with physical illness.
The truly staggering numbers of adults in Wales living with longstanding illness are approximately:
- 1.2 million adults in Wales live with at least one longstanding illness
- 800,000 of all those adults in Wales are somewhat limited by their longstanding illness(s)
- 340,000 of all those adults in Wales are limited a lot by their longstanding illness(es)
Facilitated by Barbara Chidgey (the chair and founder of Daring to Dream, who herself lives with various chronic conditions including lupus) this conversation will explore:
- How reading can carry one’s imagination away from daily concerns
- Ways in which writing (creative or wellbeing journaling) promotes mood
- What we read – the news, celebrity gossip, comics, fiction, books for our professional development, biographies, poetry ..
- What we read from – actual physical books, newspapers, magazines, on our phones, electronic devices, comics
- How we read – long passages, short ‘chunks’ of text
- How Daring to Dream, together with Seren Books, could develop resources or workshops that create a level playing field for the inclusion of those living with illness to access, enjoy and take part in the benefits of reading and writing.
The conversation will include contributions from festival authors, from a clinical perspective and from adults living with physical illness.
Anyone is welcome to join us for this open conversation which will take place in the workshop room. Please visit the ticket desk just before the event to find out where to go.

Daring to Dream is a Welsh charity that supports the emotional health and wellbeing of patients in Wales, aged 16 years and over, who are under the care of hospital clinics across Wales. Find out more on their website daringtodream.wales. They are our charity partner for 2022.
Footnotes:
Dr Michael Mosley on BBC Radio 4 sounds discusses reading and its impact on health https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00187ws
Daring to Dream supports the emotional health and wellbeing of adults, living with physical illness, in Wales. We are a registered charitable incorporated organisation, number 1190590 established formally July 2020. www.daringtodream.wales
Living with physical illness is something that we all experience at some time(s) in our lives; we experience illness both physically and emotionally. This means that our emotional wellbeing and physical wellbeing are interdependent; together they support the best health and quality of life for each of us.
Health and social care professionals support and care for our physical needs that are associated with illness:
- Clinical care and expertise includes diagnosis, treatment plans, interventions, medications, check -ups and care in response to acute crises.
- Social care supports our personal care needs that may arise from our illness, crises, surgery, frailty and so on.
- Emotional health and wellbeing is what Daring to Dream is focused on supporting and improving