Charity Work

Here you will find all the information about the Charity work our previous Senior Partner, Wayne Griffiths, is involved in. 

Free Wifi at Velindre Continues Thanks to Rhian Griffiths' Tribute Fund

Spending time at Velindre without internet access was a major problem for patients, visitors and staff, but thanks to the superb fundraising efforts of eight friends from Porthcawl, for the last three years Velindre Cancer Centre has been able to provide a free internet service.

This funding will shortly be coming to an end, but thanks to the outstanding fundraising efforts of Wayne and Jayne Griffiths and all the contributions to Velindre through Rhian Griffiths’ Tribute Fund, this vital service will now continue for at least another 3 years. Wayne Griffiths said

“We, Rhian’s family, have been endeavouring to honour her wishes and commemorate her life by continuing to fundraise for Velindre.  Our hope of course  for the future is that research will find a way to cure cancer so that no one will have to go through what Rhian did and no family would have to witness their loved ones’ suffering: We, additionally wish to continue with our efforts to support the ongoing improvements and facilities for patients and their families as we have done since the inception of Rhian’s charitable fund in July 2012.  

Through the substantial support of friends, family and all of Velindre and in particular the Velindre Fundraising team, we have to date managed to raise over £256,000 which has been utilised solely at Velindre in the areas where most needed. 

The provision therefore of a donation of £40,000 over the next 3 years for this much needed resource is a project we are very pleased to support and realise that it resonates  very much with the expressed wishes of Rhian to us as a family.”

Head of Fundraising at Velindre Andrew Morris said:

“It can be hugely frustrating for patients and visitors who cannot keep in touch with their friends, or access social media; time can drag very slowly and as patient centred care is at the heart of everything we strive to do at Velindre, this was a situation we were very keen to rectify. The fantastic contribution we received from the Team Velinmanjaro group made internet access accessible for all, and we are really pleased that this really significant service will continue for the next 3 years thanks to the generous support of Wayne and Jayne through Rhian’s Tribute Fund.

Thousands and thousands of patients and families benefit from this service, for instance patients are able to FaceTime their children to say goodnight – it really does make a huge difference to people spending time at Velindre. The free internet service allows people to use their own devices such as their smartphones, tablets and laptops to keep in touch with family and friends, check e-mails, download films etc in both in the out-patient and in-patient setting.  

It’s particularly helpful for patients who have travelled some distance for specialist treatment, and whose relatives may not be able to visit regularly."

Velindre is Wales’ premier Cancer Centre, providing care, support and treatment to cancer patients and their families for over 60 years.

Velindre is the major provider of radiotherapy and other specialised anti-cancer treatments in Wales. Access to radiotherapy is critical to improving patient outcomes for cancer.

We all know of family, friends and loved ones who have been touched by cancer.

The incidence of cancer is rising by 2% each year in Wales with nearly 20,000 people diagnosed with this illness each year, and by 2020 one in two of us will develop cancer and 150,000 people will be living with a current or previous diagnosis of this disease.

However as Velindre staff strive every day to deliver the best cancer services through exceptional care, more people than ever are living with cancer – survival rates have doubled in the last 40 years through better treatments and earlier detection.

We want to lead in the delivery and development of compassionate, individualised and effective cancer care to achieve outcomes comparable with the best in the world.

Donations to Velindre are used to fund things over and above what the NHS provide, so fundraising really does make a huge difference to our patients and their families.

We aim to provide the best care, when people need us most.

President:
Jonathan Davies OBE

Vice President:
Roy Noble

Patrons:
​Brynmor Williams
James Dean Bradfield
Mike Hall
​Martyn Williams
Rhod Gilbert
Sam Warburton
Shane Williams

Children’s Contact Centre – Pontypridd

I am Chair of the Board of Trustees of this Charity comprising 12 additional volunteers as well who give up their time to support contact currently for a whole host of families on Saturdays at the Contact Centre currently based at the Wales Council for the Deaf, Courthouse Street, opposite our office.

Ongoing fundraising is needed to offset expenditure.

We have an excellent administrator but regularly I have to write on behalf of the Charity to NACC, the body that dishes out accreditations for these types of Centres and ensure together with the Board of Trustees and they administrate that our accounts are in order.

Contact takes place as a result of self-referral but also via Solicitors and also from CAFCASS.

I predict that I will be Chair on this as I don’t think there are many other volunteers to take over until the day I retire from Practice!

However, it is a very worthwhile Charity helping mainly dads to see their children in a safe venue protected and supported when otherwise they wouldn’t.

I have been involved with Macmillan for a number of years, fundraising locally and helped in the inauguration of the first Rhondda Walk in 2009, when around 60 people took part, the popularity of the Walk has developed to such an extent that this year over 1,000 participants are expected and have been participating over the last 3 to 4 years raising much needed funds for this very worthwhile Cancer Charity.

You know that Macmillan provides nurses, doctors, but also key support services directly to the public for those suffering from cancer as well as welfare benefits advice, etc.

I have been Chair of the Welsh Forum which in part feeds into the UK Forum for over 3 years.

This means that I travel on behalf of the Welsh Forum to London around 5-6 times a year to participate in the UK Forum (all funding by Macmillan) and in effect I am a conduit of policy decisions from London to Wales and vice versa.

I have met many special people along the way including a host of volunteers from all over the UK as well as a number of members of the Wales and West Midlands Fundraising Team (there are about 25 of them!) Head of whom is in fact is Lyn Devonald’s second daughter Catrin.

I have consequently had to make a number of speeches about the work of Macmillan and the work of the volunteer forum which in effect is the mouthpiece of volunteers, the views of which are acknowledged by Macmillan and taken on board.

I have been “pressganged” sorry asked and nominated to be the Conference Chair for this year’s annual volunteer conference to be held in Leicester in May where I have to apparently seamlessly ensure that the conference proceeds without blips over a 3 day period and make appropriate ad lib, hopefully funny links in between the various seminars and functions! I am not sure I should have accepted this but what the hell and it means that Wales effectively punches above his weight because although there are lot of volunteers in Wales proportionately there are far less than in England in particular. Macmillan incidentally has over 40,000 volunteers in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland with over 3,000 in Wales.

It is a labour of love for me and although I am rubbish at most things, thankfully it appears that by opening my gob, I can help!

This is the primary focus of my charitable work. Catch the latest flyer from Rhian’s Charity and you will see that through the excellent work of a number of people who have supported us, we managed to get over £240,000 so far raised as and from the funds inception in July 2012 just after Rhian passed.

Jayne, Rhys and I are effective Trustees of her ring fenced Fund and considerable input from us takes place before any expenditure is made from it.

It is not a question of us being protected of that money but we can choose where the money goes, in conjunction of course with Management and Doctors at the Centre to ensure therefore that it goes to the most appropriate recipient.

A number of outlets sell the “Forget-Me-Not” badges and we are on the second batch of £10,000 with a new design having sold £10,000 of the first batch.

There is adjunct Justgiving page which has been going since February 2016 and nearly £16,000 has been raised by that page with additional sums of course paid into Velindre direct.

Jayne and I are Ambassadors of Velindre and I tend to out as and when required to various donors and functions to speak about our story and accept cheques by way on donation (not enough hours in the day!).