Margaret Zier suffers from a lethal lung disease – but it is not stopping her and other Newport patients from joining a nationwide fight for recognition and research. Around 4,800 people United Kingdom-wide, 240 in Wales, are diagnosed every year with pulmonary fibrosis, a progressive, incurable illness causing hardening of the lungs.

Health bosses in Gwent need to find up to £33 million in savings during the new financial year to avoid slipping further into the red.

A charity helping male victims of domestic abuse says it needs to move to a bigger “safe house” after being inundated with appeals for help. Montgomeryshire Family Crisis Centre (MFCC) has received more than 100 inquiries from across the UK since opening the Powys refuge last year.

A cannabis factory containing 2,300 plants and taking up three floors of a disused hotel has been uncovered by police. South Wales Police say they have smashed a “sophisticated drugs making factory” after following up a tip-off from a member of public regarding the Jubilee Hotel in Tylorstown, Rhondda.

Kerry Morgan, a dedicated “pint and cigarette” man, was so incensed at the idea of a smoking ban in public places he decided to build his own private pub where people can smoke.

A scheme to transmit television appeals for missing children is to be extended across Wales in the near future, it emerged yesterday. The Child Rescue Alert programme was launched by North Wales Police yesterday. Its use is being examined by all police forces in England and Wales.

Ministers must examine whether the law can be strengthened against rapists who use alcohol and drugs for sex, Government advisers have said. The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) said sexual assault using booze or spiked drinks was a “significant problem”.

Friends of domestic violence victims in Wrexham are being urged to report offences in a new advertising campaign running throughout April, and victims will now feel more confident about following their cases through to conviction with the setting up of a specialist court in the town.

Labour says a Plaid Cymru claim that a hospital in a key Welsh assembly seat faces downgrading is scaremongering. But Plaid Cymru said it had responded to “genuine concerns” over Llandudno Hospital and plans to move coronary services were “unacceptable”.

NHS staff across Wales are being kitted out with stab-proof vests to protect them from violent patients. More than 7,500 incidents of physical and verbal abuse are reported in Welsh hospitals every year, averaging an attack on doctors and nurses every two hours.