Winning Llanelli for Cymru - Portrait of a Lady

It is striking to note how many nationalists (including alanindyfed) were born outside Wales. The numbers include Saunders Lewis,  Dafydd Wigley, Helen-Mary Jones and Janet Ryder and many more. One of these is the candidate for Llanelli, Dr Myfanwy Davies. Whether one is Welsh or not is not a matter of birth or even of genes - it is one of allegiance (see the archives - Sunday 5th August 2007 - "Hearts and Minds").

Llanelli

Dr Myfanwy Mair Davies was born in 1975 in Halifax, Yorkshire.

She is from the Furnace area of Llanelli and attended Ysgol Dewi Sant, Llanelli and Ysgol Gyfun y Strade.

After leaving school, Myfanwy went on to continue her education at Oxford, Cambridge, Sheffield and Middlesex Universities. She completed her studies with a PhD in health services research focusing on the relationships between doctors and nurses caring for women from minority ethnic groups during pregancy and birth.

Myfanwy is a former university lecturer (Univeristé de Rouen) and freelance researcher. She is currently a post-doctoral research fellow and leads a team of researchers in health services research at Cardiff University focusing particularly on health care decision making, health inequalities and women’s health. She is a former chair of Plaid Cymru Youth Section and Plaid Cymru Women’s Section and contributed to developing health policy for the last assembly elections as one of the party’s Wellbeing Commissioners. She is currently Director of Political Education for the party and is responsible for engaging the party membership in policy development and dissemination.

Myfanwy’s mother, Mari is a Yorkshirewoman who has made her home in Wales since the 1960s. She is a Plaid Cymru county councillor for Hengoed and chair of Llanelli Rural Council. Her father, Dic is the former borough Librarian for Llanelli. Her grandfather and great-grandfather were prominent figures in Rhandirmwyn and Cil-y-Cwm in the Upper Tywi valley where her fathers’ family still farm. Family legend claims that Twm Sion Cati, highwayman and later justice of the peace at Llandovery married into the family.

Her family has links with the Pontiets and Ponthenri in the Gwendraeth valley where generations of the family migrated to work in the collieries, returning to the family farm during the 1926 strike.

Myfanwy enjoys reading, walking and cooking for friends. She supports the Scarlets, Furnace RFC and Llanelli Wanderers. She writes for Tu Chwith, the Welsh Arts periodical.

She is a school governor and has particular interests in the environment, health and economic affairs.

http://www.myfanwydavies.org