HUGE congratulations are due to everyone involved with Team Wales at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Every athlete did their country proud and all deserve a hero's return.

Given the challenges pre-season, it is all the more thrilling to see the team break the medal target and produce the hugely inspiring performances we’ve seen.

After 11 days of competition and months, if not years, of hard work and preparation Team Wales athletes have made the history books at these Commonwealth Games by becoming the most successful team to ever compete for Wales with a medal haul of 36, including five gold, eleven silver and 20 bronze medals.

Glasgow 2014 has been an outstanding Games for Wales. The aim of surpassing the highest medal tally of 31 collected in the Manchester 2002 Games seemed a long way off but our athletes have performed outstandingly well and each one to the very best of their ability.

In my view, Wales should be bidding to host a Commonwealth Games. Such a bid should be financed by a public-private partnership.

For me, there is no question that such a bid should be centred on South East Wales. We already have world class facilities such as the Velodrome in Newport and the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. I urge the Welsh Government to work with partners and take the next step and to prepare a bid to host the Commonwealth Games in 2026.

It was the American politician and author, Ralph Nader, who said: “When strangers start acting like neighbours communities are reinvigorated.”

The importance of donating to charities and community groups is particularly imperative in these times of economic stringency.

This is something I have supported locally for a number of years, donating £2000 each to Newport Food Bank and Cardiac Rehabilitation UK in 2013.

I recently had the pleasure of attending a charity event and a total of £7500 was donated to eight charities including The Samaritans, Save the Children, Light for Life, the Newport Sea Scouts, Girl Guides, Shevet Achim UK and Help Imogen Walk Appeal.

Shevet Achim UK was set up to raise awareness of Shevet Achim in Jerusalem, a non-profit making organisation dedicated to saving the lives of Arab children with congenital heart defects by providing treatment in Israeli medical centres.

They do great work in building bridges between communities in the Middle East and deserve support.