If you sometimes despair of politics and wonder if people in our communities can make a difference, this story should help restore your faith. It's a tale of how a Newport housewife is helping to protect millions of people in this country armed only with Twitter, Facebook and a large phone bill.

As we approach Christmas think back a few years to the collapse of Farepak, the Christmas savings scheme. Thousands of Farepak members lost their hard saved money when the company collapsed just before Christmas.

There were hundreds of families affected in Newport, who saved small amounts of money week by week with an agent (who was often a friend or family member) throughout the year to pay for Christmas, just as Government tells people to do. The savers were just seen as "unsecured creditors". There were collections and some small compensation for some, but by and large the money was gone.

Since the day Farepak collapsed Newport Farepak agent Deb Harvey has been at the forefront of the campaign to get justice and compensation for the victims but also to make sure this never happens again. Her research has showed that there are lots of savings schemes out there - supermarkets, funerals, holidays. Some Christmas schemes have some self regulation but many schemes don’t, putting the hard earned cash of savers at risk if something goes wrong.

I recently attended the second meeting of a small group of campaigners and their MPs hosted by Vince Cable. Deb and her fellow campaigner Louise from Glasgow joined us on a tele-conference to question the BIS Secretary of State on regulations for supermarket savings schemes, and how to ensure insolvency law works better for unsecured creditors.

After contacting every major supermarket and savings schemes Deb and Louise have persuaded the Co Op to protect their savers' money, full details will be given by the Co-Op in the new year - the first major retailer to promise this.

As Deb herself puts it “We are incredibly humbled by the fact that a £13 billion company listened to two housewives from opposite ends of the country, who do all their campaigning either via email, phone and Twitter and took on board everything we asked of them - it’s just incredible”.

In May, Deb was elected for the first time as a Newport Councillor, joining a strong team of Cllr Ray Truman and Cllr John Guy - Alway ward has powerful advocates!