In January, myself and a friend, Marjorie Howard, were two of 50 women who received letters from Castlegate Medical Practice informing us that due to lack of funding,they would be no longer able to treat our medical condition and we were to be referred to the gynaecology department of a hospital.

It was such a shock receiving that letter and as we are both in our late 80s, we were extremely worried about which hospital we would have to travel to and how would we get there so we decided that we were going to do our best and fight to get some funding and reverse the decision.

As advised in the letter, we contacted the Aneurin Bevan Health Board but we never had the response from them so we got in touch with the then MP David Davies and the Welsh Government’s MS Peter Fox who were most helpful as was senior reporter Des Pugh from the Beacon whose article regarding our situation resulted in two other ladies, Sue Moss and Margaret Gwyn, contacting us and joining our campaign.

We then got in touch with Catherine Fookes who was a county councillor at the time and wrote to the then health minister Eluned Morgan.

We received an unsigned letter in reply from the Welsh Government business team which was of no help as the things they suggested we had already tried.

However in their letter they put contact details of an advocacy service called Llais who were very helpful and we are waiting for an advocate to contact us.

In the meantime, we were notified by a consultant that there would be a 50-week waiting time before we could be seen at a hospital and that Castlegate should continue to treat us.

This was confirmed by a letter from the surgery saying that they would treat us until the end of December 2024 .

The four of us had a meeting with Catherine Fookes (now MP) and her office keeps in touch with us. We appreciate the support she has given us.

In October of this year, we received another letter from Castlegate and it appears the gynaecology department is unable to accept another 50 patients so the surgery will have to carry on supporting the Health Board by continuing to see us.

So 11 months later and nothing has really changed. We are still worried about where we eventually will be treated and how we will get there.

It was recently reported in the Beacon that there is the possibility of another 270 houses being built in Monmouth and that the consultation process has commenced for the building of a health centre.

Let us hope that common sense prevails and that a sensible site will be found for the center and it will be built first before at least another 520 patients overwhelm our doctors and some possibly ending up in a situation similar to ourselves.