Ynys Mon Labour Senedd 2021 Candidate – Sam Egelstaff 

Sam Egelstaff is an experienced teacher who has been a committed and highly successful campaigner on a wide range of issues in Wales.  In addition, she is Founder and Chair of Llanrwst Flood Action Group and has spoken on national TV on behalf of flooded communities.

Motions proposed by Sam at Welsh Labour Conferences have directly led to increased funding for women’s refuges during the COVID pandemic, provision of free period products in schools and votes for 16- and 17-year-olds in the 2021 Senedd election.  She has also played a key role in campaigns to provide free childcare for 2- to 3-year-olds and to end ‘call clipping’ — the practice of scheduling care appointments without allowing for travel time between visits, which disadvantages care workers and those receiving care while increasing the profit margins of private care companies.

Sam is a member of Welsh Labour Women’s Committee and has been very involved in the WASPI (Women Against State Pension Inequality) campaign.  She led a team that lit Conwy Castle purple to commemorate 100 years of Women’s Right to Vote and to draw attention to the plight of all women affected by the UK Government decision to raise their State Pension Age by several years without notice.

Sam has worked in a range of schools in Wales, as Head of Department and Programme Leader.  She is currently a sixth form tutor, helping students from the most deprived areas to progress into universities.  In addition, she has recently supported Access to Health students by acting as a tutor to future NHS staff.

Sam was born in Durham and moved to the Conwy Valley as a young teenager.  She studied for her A levels at Coleg Llandrillo and went to university in Newcastle upon Tyne, completing a BA (Hons) in English and Film Studies. She then completed her PGCE in English, Media and Drama at the University of East Anglia in Norwich.

Sam initially taught on the East Durham coast but decided to move back to North Wales, to the place that she had always loved deeply.  She has since gained an ‘Inspiring Leaders’ Level 4 Diploma in Leadership and Management and a Master of Arts in Creative Writing from Bangor University.  Her poetry has been published in several collections and magazines, and she has performed at festivals nationally and internationally.

Sam is married to Richard and has three children.  She is a Welsh learner who gained her Welsh GCSE (second language) after studying in evening classes and uses intermediate level Welsh at home and in the classroom.  Her husband and children all speak first language Welsh and her children all attend Welsh language schools.