While giving birth, Paul’s Mum Andrea was left with a trainee midwife. Paul was born with the chord around his neck and his brain was starved of oxygen leaving him with permanent brain damage and severe learning disabilities.

Paul developed  ’Petit Mal’ seizures. They began suddenly and  without any warning signs.

Paul lived in Hensol for 36 years from 1964 to 2001

Paul was moved into the community to a purpose built bungalow in Briton Ferry

Paul Ridd admitted to ITU for an operation on his perforated bowel

Paul sadly died in Morriston Hospital

Paul is taken to Cardiff for independent post mortem

We had so many unanswered questions. Meeting with the Coroner. Told “If you’re looking for compensation, Paul’s life was worth nothing.”

Met Nicky Gilbert from Mencap Cymru who advised us and supported us. Nicky was our only supporter for the first 12 months after Paul died.

First meeting with Linda Bevan, Head of Nursing for General Surgery and Urology at Morriston Hospital.

POVA Meeting at Morriston Hospital. Unable to answer all our questions.

“It greatly concerns me that the dire level of nursing care to which Paul was subjected on the ward could have happened in the 21st Century.”

Peter Tindell, Ombudsmen

Paul’s story was made public on BBC and ITV news and in all the local papers.

Mencap Cymru have always been there for us. It’s an organisation with passionate people who make a difference. 

Meeting with Leslie Griffiths, Professor Ruth Northway and Professor Jean White and Hayley Tarrant

Meeting with Leslie Griffiths, Professor Ruth Northway and Professor Jean White and Hayley Tarrant

Mencap received funds from WAG to create a training video and awareness sessions for hospital staff.

Our first sharing of Paul’s story with health care professionals.

First Mencap training at Morriston with Dawn Gullis.

We shared Paul’s story at  Strengthening the Commitment conference at SWALEC Stadium Cardiff.

2 day inquest into Paul’s death – outcome was “Neglect”.

Jonathan & Jayne win the Citizens’ Voice Inspire Wales award.

Meeting with Health Minister Mark Drakeford & Jenny French

Launch of the Care Bundle at Welsh Assembly Government by Welsh Health Minister via 1000 Lives campaign.

Launch of the Care Bundle at Welsh Assembly Government by Welsh Health Minister via 1000 Lives campaign.

First hospital walkabout with Rachel Sommerville.

Morriston Hospital walkabout – first time back to ward G since Paul died. Met Melanie Davies for the first time.

Made a film for Mencap’s  “Hear my Voice” campaign

Met Paul Roberts, ABMU CEO with Christine Williams RE logo packs, training and liaison nurses.

First meeting at Cardiff & Vale with Ruth Jordan

Invited by Mencap to speak in Parliament and share Paul’s story as part of the “Hear my Voice” campaign.

First presentation at University of South Wales, Pontypridd with Professor Ruth Northway.

Met Gail Elwell, Laura Andrews & Laura Phillips.

Paul Ridd would have been 60. We celebrated his life with a party at Margam Park.

Met ABMU CEO Paul Roberts and Hazel Powell. She secured funding for liaison nurses.

Launch of the ABMU LD Liaison Nursing Service at Morriston Hospital

First paid member of staff Debbie Shawe.

Meeting with Vaughan Gething, Welsh Assembly Minister for Health

First meeting at Hywel Dda HB. Met Carol Cotterell for the first time.

Meeting with  Sharon Williams of Public Health Wales.

Climbed Pen y Fan.

Pathway meeting at Morriston Hospital with Nicola Williams, Director of Nursing – Chair of Pathway meetings.

First visit to the Learning Disability Tuesday Club. Met Pat Lamprey.

First All Wales group meeting to promote the Common standard.

Our 1st Annual Fundraising Winter Ball raises over £7,000. Organised by Debbie Shawe.

Volunteers Phyl Morgan & Lynn Gower come in to help Debbie in our office to put together 1200 LD Logo packs for every hospital in Wales.

First meeting  to discuss E-Training & LD Hwb.

Completion of 1200 LD Logo packs for every hospital ward and department in Wales.

We attended the Ladies Night at the Masonic Lodge organised by Debbie and Chris Griffiths to fundraise for the Paul Ridd Foundation.

 Met Hayley Tarrant, Head of LD services and  Katrina Rowlands, assistant Director of Nursing

Presented by Andy Jones.

First contact with Bespoke Group, Neath Abbey and  Danielle Wagstaff

Afternoon Tea at Tyn yr Twr for family and carers of people with a LD. Met Kath Palmer, Welsh Assembly Government

Shared Paul’s story and the Care Bundle with local GP surgeries and local care providers

Paul Harris of Princess of Wales Hospital Bridgend won awards for his tremendous work creating a unique “SPA” (Soothing Patients Anxiety) experience.

First visit to Aneurin Bevan  Health Board. Met Gail Elwell, LD Liaison Nurse.

Port Talbot Hospital with Ffion Moyle, Miss Wales 2016 – Ward Walkabout and distribution of Logo Packs.

Our trustee Melanie Davies won RCNi Nurse of the Year Award.

Met Paula Phillips, ABMU Primary Care Liaison Nurse to share our vision.

First presentation at Swansea University with Gerwyn Panes.

Volunteer Jen Eddy takes on the gruelling Tough Mudder course to fundraise for the Paul Ridd Foundation.

Glow in the Dark Midnight Walk organised by Debbie Shawe. We were supported by over 200 walkers from all over Wales and raised £6,000.

Met Kim Scandariati, Jenny French, Nichaela Jones, Simon & Rebecca Evans, AM

Met Paul Davies.

Met Kath Palmer & Claire Hough.

14 skydivers raised over £7,000.

Paula Phillips, Helen Fargie and Lynn ran the Cardiff Marathon to raise funds for the foundation.

Attended our Ambassador David Brown’s LD Care Bundle Awareness Day in Aberystwyth.

Shared Paul’s story with nursing students University of South Wales, Access to Health students at Gower College and at the Learning Disability Conference.

Discussions to launch the LD Care Bundle and LD Logo in Cwm Taf.

Our 2nd Annual Fundraising Winter Ball and presentation of our first Learning Disability Awards.

Meeting with Joe Powell.

Meeting with Andy Jones C&V.

Sharing Paul’s Story with Nursing students at USW, Singleton, Swansea and Carmarthen campuses of Swansea University.

From ABMU to Cwm Taf in Cardiff and BCUHB in North Wales.

In partnership with Mencap Cymru in Cardiff.

Both Jayne & Jonathan are awarded the BEM (British Empire Medal).

Jonathan & Jayne received an Honorary Fellowship of the University of South Wales.

Family fun day in Margam Park. Raising money by having a walk, a run and a picnic!

Momentous day as we submitted our E-petition with over 5,000 signatures to Welsh government to make learning disability awareness training mandatory.

Fashion Show at the Aberavon Hotel with Women’s Institute.

Mitch Richards won the Paul Ridd foundation award.

First committee meeting with Welsh Government regarding Mandatory Training.

Invited for the first time to speak at Consultants awareness training at SBUHB.

So far this year we have trained over 700 nursing students at USW and Swansea University!

Thank you to Simon Sherriff for organising this amazing event to raise funds for us!

Champion training with Cwm Taf Community Resource Team.

In conjunction with Mencap on Reasonable Adjustments. 

Celebrating the end of another successful year of campaigning.

Meetings with South Glamorgan Community Health Council regarding joint training with their staff and also met with Public Health Wales to discuss the Mandatory learning disability awareness training.

Announced that there are now 17 Liaison nurses working in hospitals across Wales.

Online training for USW.

After many months of work we were delighted to launch our new website, with E-Learning, resource pages for families & carers, NHS staff, news pages and lots more!

A great meeting with Swansea University to discuss our input into their new nursing degree.

Jayne was delighted to be asked to speak at the RCN Wales cross party group on Nursing & Midwifery Mental Health and Learning Disabilities. At the event we received their backing and that of David Rees MS for a Consultant nurse in every health board in Wales.  We currently only have one in SBUHB.

Great meeting with Aberystwyth University to discuss their plans for a brand new nursing degree and how we can support them.

After delays caused by the pandemic, we were delighted to restart meetings with Welsh Government & Improvement Cymru to discuss progress of the mandatory learning disability awareness training for all healthcare staff in the NHS in Wales.

We carried out 2 online sessions, sharing Paul's Story with over 100 mental health nursing students. 

Jonathan & Jayne filmed a short video at Buffoon Media studios which will appear at the beginning of the mandatory Paul Ridd Learning Disability Awareness Training when it launches within the NHS in Wales next year.  

We were delighted to be invited to Bangor University to share Paul's Story online with over 120 first year nursing students. Online training has really increased the number of locations we can now easily share such vital learning disability awareness.

Today was a momentous occasion for the PRF as we saw the launch of the mandatory learning disability awareness training that we had campaigned tirelessly for.  From today all NHS staff in Wales with a public facing role, will have to complete this vital training. 

With the help of a volunteer, we created 100 logo packs for Cwm Taf health board which they kindly provided funding for.  These packs are seen as a vital resource for the acute  liaison nurses and champions looking after patients with a learning disability in hospital. 

We were invited to join the acute liaison nurses from Cardiff & Vale Health Board for this inaugural workshop at Cardiff University.  We shared Paul's Story and answered questions from over 120 nursing students. 

Sharing Paul's Story is always a privilege.  We spoke to Swansea University nursing students online, and later in the month to students at the Carmarthen campus working for a Certificate in healthcare studies.  Over 140 students in total!

This month we shared Paul's Story again online with Bangor University and the next day we travelled to Cardiff University to  join the liaison team for another workshop.  We spoke with over 100 students.  

Over 70 people attended our inaugural roadshow event in Swansea with Mencap Cymru for the launch of our Family & Carer Access to Healthcare booklets.   

We were delighted to speak with over 50 first year nursing students and staff in Aberystwyth University's first nursing cohort. We were joined by members of the Hywel Dda Health Action and liaison nurse teams.

We discussed the uptake of the PRF mandatory learning disability awareness training across the NHS in Wales, which sadly has been patchy.  We are grateful to have the full support of Julie Morgan the Deputy Minister in our campaign.

We were delighted to share Paul's Story online with over 60 first year nursing students at  Bangor University, and then later in the month, with over 150 students at University of South Wales.

We were delighted to hold our first meeting online, with our new trustees, Professor Catherine Bright and Dr Dawn Cavanagh.  We are thrilled to be working with them and very grateful for their commitment to the Foundation. 

There was a real buzz in the room for our Healthcare roadshow in Carmarthen, with over 90 people attending!

It was great to have the Patient Experience team from Welsh Ambulance joining us for our Merthyr roadshow.

We had a great day at our Llandudno Roadshow meeting some amazing people making a real difference with their work. 

Jonathan spoke at the LDW conference in North & South Wales about what we have achieved in the last few years.  Delighted to be given this great picture about his talk in Llandudno!

We reflected on Paul's legacy & achievements of the Foundation, on the 15th anniversary of his death.  We also had tea and cake in his honour. 

Alongside many groups and supporters, we joined the Stolen Lives campaign outside the Senedd calling for the release of people with a learning disability and/or autistic people from secure hospital settings in Wales.