‘We aim to create a community who believe in their own ability and the strength of their heads’

Two mass singing events aim to unite people around the power of community and music. Their organiser, Alaw Llwyd Owen, told Jenny White how a devastating car accident set her on the path to creating the Nerth dy Ben movement

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A HORRIFIC car accident in 2018 changed the course of Alaw Llwyd Owen's life and set her on a path to organising two mass singing events to unite communities in Wales.

Alaw’s car accident caused a brain injury that she overcame through sheer determination anda long recovery process.

“Tt essentially flipped my life upside down daily,” she says. “I went on a bit of a journey to discover a lot more about how the brain works, how my brain influenced every single aspect of what I did in day to day life, and essentially I had a light bulb moment when I realised I had the responsibility to control my own mind and my brain, and I can do that, in order to be able to live my best life day to day.”

‘This led to a podcast series, Byw ar dy Ora, about living “to the best of your ability”.

“We've got different episodes going out every two weeks, where I talk to different people from the community, ask them: what is living to the best of the ability? What does that mean to you? How do you do it? And is it important?” she says.

“That's one thing that came to me as I was recovering, and as I was going through rehab, which was a good few years of getting myself back on my feet.”

From this came Nerth dy Ben (“strength of your head”), a growing movement that aims to “nurture and celebrate the positive power of the mind’.

Specifically, it brings people together through the Welsh language, creating opportunities to “connect, share and celebrate community across north Wales”.

“Nerth dy Ben came about because I realised I could take control of and learn a bit more about how, neurologically, how my brain works, what it needs, and how I can use it to my best of my ability to be able to live at my best,” says Alaw.

One of the aims of Nerth dy Ben is to educate people about brain function and how to nurture it.