Bethan Jenkins and Tina Williams

It was so hot on Friday afternoon, but our meeting hall in Neath was a haven of cool breezes and shade - bliss ! - helped by large jugs of iced lemon drink, thoughtfully brought along by two of our members. They deserve a medal.

Tina talked about a new initiative, working with Swansea Football Club, to promote better physical and mental health, especially amongst young men, who are the group who seem to be affected most in the recession by these sorts of problems. Of course her work covers everyone who needs such help and advice.

Bethan, one of our Assembly Members, was very keen to follow up our concerns about hospital visiting. Services are to be centred, probably in five main hospitals along the M4 from Cardiff to Swansea and one in Merthyr. As each hospital specialises it means that patients will often be hospitalised further from their homes than is the case now. We brought up the point that officially hospital visiting is only in the evenings at most hospitals which will be almost impossible for some people, the elderly, disabled, people with youg children and so on. Public transport is pretty infrequent in a lot of these valleys. A spokesperson from a local health board said that next of kin can visit in the afternoons and they should be made aware of that, but it's not happening. So Bethan said she would look into it. It was brought up at a meeting of the CVS in Neath last week, so, hopefully we will get some clarification on the situation.

Aberavon Beach Festival

Oh boy, what a scorcher. I think the whole population of the area was out on the beach on Saturday and most of them came through our marquee. You can see from the picture how crowded it was and that continued almost non-stop from 10.00am to 4.00pm.

Loads of people took away information from our stand. One lady introduced herself to say she was organising a sponsored walk from Neath to Swansea to raise funds for BLF Wales. I wish her and all who take part every success.

It was a lovely, if exhausting day, and I almost sold out of dolls, making a fantastic £115.