My husband was Vicar of Pennant Melangell church at Llangynog, which dates back to the 12th century and is well-known across the world. I set up a cancer help centre and a ministry of healing and reconciliation there and, after my husband died, became vicar of Pennant Melangell in his place. I owned a little house there and I thought I would stay forever.
But I kept on having very strong feelings that I should go to Aberdaron. I had been there before, but only as a visitor and had no plans to leave Llangynog. I spoke to Andrew Jones, the Rector of Llanbedrog and told him about this strong sense that I should move, against my will really, and live in a small village right at the tip of Pen Llŷn. I was hoping he'd say - 'don't be ridiculous, you're old, the feelings will pass' - but he didn't. He spoke to the bishop and I was given the living of Aberdaron.
St Hywyn's is right on the beach. It was the last stop for pilgrims before Bardsey Island and it's in two halves. One dates back to 1137 and the other to an extension in 1400. It was the largest church on Pen Llŷn and was known as the 'Cathedral of Pen Llŷn'.
It was abandoned in the 1900s when the locals decided to build a new church up in the village. But it was so awful they returned on July 9 1906.
As soon as I moved here I was immediately very worried about St Hywyn's - I could see it needed major restoration. But we got on with developing Aberdaron and the church as a place of pilgrimage and began again to use a house on Bardsey as a place of retreat. We held exhibitions in the church and had services every day and more and more pilgrims began to come.
In 2004 we had 20,000 people come through the church. It was obvious that it was a growing ministry and the local congregation began to respond. They set up a lay team to help do something about the building as things were getting worse and worse.
At first we thought the total cost would be £100,000, but it's turned out to be a vast project. A quarter of the work has been repairing previous restoration work and costs have risen to £250,000.
We're still fund-raising to reach the target - I'm like a detective, hunting out people to give us money. We appeared on A Passion for Churches on BBC Two last year and, though it wasn't about fund-raising, we received £50,000 in donations from the viewers - they came from all over, Gibraltar, Germany, Spain - and very many from Scotland and Cornwall. It was such a help.
We employed wonderful builders to help us. Young local men have been trained in new skills, such as finishing lime mortar - it was always our aim that the community would benefit in this way.
We began the work in September 2005 and we will be open again from July 2006. It's been an amazing project and has brought my congregation together as an excellent team, serving the needs of the pilgrims, visitors and the local community.
I've worked with the Church in Wales for over 40 years, but this parish is the dearest to my heart. It's a small community facing the wind and the waves and they are a good people and I love them dearly. They've been so supportive, whether members of the church or not.
We can now continue to offer day retreats where pilgrims come to Aberdaron, take part in a morning service before going over to Bardsey Island for the day. If the weather isn't great we've devised a tour of six out-of-the-way churches on Pen Llŷn.
The poet R S Thomas used to be the vicar here, so we run retreat days connected with his poetry and rector Andrew Jones runs days on the history of pilgrimage and Pen Llŷn's many saints.
We're so busy from nine in the morning, when we open for morning prayers, to six in the evening. We run a shop, hold lectures and exhibitions so visitors can come and learn something about Aberdaron's history. It's a great place to come on a wet afternoon during the summer when we have harp recitals and concerts.
