Young Carers- The Unsung Heroes

Growing up as a young carer was very challenging, there were many times where I felt alone trapped in this cycle of injustice. Times where I felt it wasn’t fair that my brother has autism and my mum struggles every day with fibromyalgia and then also has autism and anxiety.

In the ideal world you can go out and play with your friends when you come in from school but for me I lived everyday in fear that if I went out and playe

d then my family would need me and I wouldn’t be there for them.

As a Young Carer you are given the opportunity to take time for yourself each fortnight and go to an evening group where you could meet other Young Carers who were a similar age to yourself and just have that relaxing break you deserve.

I remember the fun times playing bingo and feeling like you were a king when you won a whole bag of sweets. That night after the session had finished my dad would pick me up in the car and the whole family would just be laughing and chatting about all the fun we had.

I never hated being a Young Carer, I never once thought I would rather have a different life. Instead I was proud to be a young carer and proud to have disabled family members, in one way it created more opportunities for me and my family that I may never have had.

Young Carers are part of a community- a family of their own.

If someone was feeling upset or needed some

support, you knew that there was always someone you could talk to.

However Young Carers do not get the recognition and support that they deserve and the charity itself desperately needs this support to carry on going.

To be able to provide this opportunity for every young carer. For everyone that could have been someone like me who thought they were alone.

The truth is there are so many Young Carers in the United Kingdom and it is heart breaking that without funding one individual may feel trapped in this cycle of loneliness and feel like they are closed off from society.

If it wasn’t for the Young Carers charity then I believe that I would be a very different person today, they have helped me to overcome boundaries and been there for me through many positive and negative times in my life.

For More information visit: https://carers.org/about-us/about-young-carers