West end star shines spotlight on north Wales’ community heroes

Nation.Cymru Staff

A Welsh actress and television personality has returned to her hometown to celebrate the volunteers keeping its community spirit alive.

Amber Davies, the Welsh-speaking star of the West End, has appeared in 9 to 5: The Musical, Pretty Woman, The Great Gatsby, and Legally Blonde.

She returned to her hometown of Denbigh, which she says is “filled with history, community, love, and friendship”, as part of the Pride of Britain Awards ‘Hometown Heroes’ series.

“I was born and bred in Denbigh,” Amber explains. “And for me, this will always be my home. The most important and special part of this community is the people. We are one gigantic family.”

Hometown Heroes is a video series and nomination campaign, run in partnership with P&O Cruises and The Mirror, which celebrates inspiring local volunteers, neighbours, and community organisations.

Featured figures in the series have included Carol Vorderman and Ashley Banjo, with their featured heroes receiving an automatic nomination for a Pride of Britain Award.

Amber visited four spots across Denbigh, beginning with Denbigh Workshop / Y Gweithdy Dinbych, a community group co-founded by actor Tracy Spencer-Jones.

The creative hub that has been running since 2016 provides “a safe space for young people” to express themselves, receive theatre and television training, and build confidence.

The club also runs a summer school for over 100 local children where they can take part in 20 activities across the week for free.

“Every time a young person gets on stage and they’re a bit nervous, every time they get up and they perform, I just think ‘Yes! You’ve had the confidence to do that, and we’ve helped get you there.’ I love what I do,” Tracy shares.

Amber then heads to Y Tŷ Gwyrdd, which she is “no stranger to”. The community re-fill shop supporting local producers and creatives is operated by Marguerite Pearce.

“We just aim to have all sorts of basic household pantry and grocery items that help people reduce their packaging
waste and their food waste on an affordable budget and as natural as possible,” Marguerite shares.

Next, Amber visits another of her old haunts, Clwb Rygbi Dinbych, which has been “at the very centre of town life” since 1977.

Amber speaks to Tegid Phillips, who has been a member of the club, whose motto is ‘Calon y Cymynydd’, since it opened. He has since coached the first team, held the role of president, and managed their fundraising efforts.

Tegid explains: “There are a lot of hearts pumping to make this club function. It’s something that you do because you feel, we feel, that we’ve got to give something to the club and give it to these youngsters who are playing regularly on a weekend for us.

“We just feel we have to give something back to our town. And we are very fortunate in the number of people who we have coming here to help us out.”

Finally, Amber visits the Denbigh Forget Me Not Project to speak with the project’s founder and current Chair, Leah Roberts.

The Forget Me Not Project began in 2020 with the initial aim of providing a community space for anyone wanting to connect with others.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, however, the group started volunteering, building up a 250-person team to help vulnerable residents who were self-isolating.

“It gives a huge sense of satisfaction to know that the crisis situations that we respond to… it’s always a challenge and never a problem,” Leah, who also works as a palliative care nurse, says. “It’s a privilege, an absolute privilege.”

Concluding the video, Amber shares that she feels Denbigh embodies the Pride of Britain, and that she is “so unbelievably grateful to come from such an inspirational town.”

“It’s about giving. It’s about helping and I am so proud to be Welsh. Cymru am Byth,” Amber says.

Nominations for the Pride of Britain Awards 2026 are open until Sunday, 2 August at 11:59 pm.More information is available here.

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