{"id":2607,"date":"2018-06-12T13:00:16","date_gmt":"2018-06-12T13:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.worcestermusicfestival.co.uk\/?p=2607"},"modified":"2025-09-09T01:48:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T01:48:08","slug":"a-carers-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.worcestermusicfestival.co.uk\/features\/a-carers-story\/","title":{"rendered":"A Carer’s Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week, the UK is celebrating the unpaid carers who spend their spare time looking after their friends and family. With a lack of support and increasing pressure\u00a0placed on those in the caring community, Carers Week has been organised to celebrate those giving their time for their loved ones while giving them the chance to get a\u00a0well-earned\u00a0break while meeting those in similar positions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As this year’s chosen charity is the Worcestershire Association of Carers, we thought it the ideal time to share personal\u00a0stories from\u00a0those caring locally:\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I have cared for my daughter since she was born. She\u2019s now 30 years old and has been blind since birth. In addition she has severe learning disabilities and\u00a0has very limited mobility, needing a wheelchair most of the time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When she was a few days old a neurologist told me that she\u2019d never walk or talk and that nothing could be done. I was stunned but determined to do my best for her. At first, despite her disabilities, it didn\u2019t feel any different to being any of the other mothers I knew. But as the\u00a0medical appointments became more\u00a0and more\u00a0frequent it was clear that our experience would be\u00a0nothing like\u00a0that of the other\u00a0parents and their children. While others were going to Mum and Toddler groups we were attending hospital appointments. Inevitably some of my new friendships withered and, with my husband working away much of the time, I became indebted to the enormous amount of support offered by my parents.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve found the strength to challenge outdated attitudes\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Everything became a battle. The consequence of the neurologist\u2019s diagnosis was that he made no referrals to other services that my daughter desperately needed. I didn\u2019t give up. Instead I spent hours at the library each week researching which services could assist and how best to fight to get them.\u00a0 I\u2019ve found the strength to challenge outdated attitudes \u2013 for example one health professional told me that there was little wonder that my daughter wasn\u2019t putting on weight since (in\u00a0her words)\u00a0\u2018she doesn\u2019t do anything\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A social worker put me in touch with the Worcestershire Association of Carers\u00a0(WAC)\u00a0when my daughter was about 12, initially to obtain a Carer\u2019s Emergency Card. Their regular newsletter kept me up to date with developments and issues relevant to carers and I signed up for some of the workshops they offered. These were invaluable to me\u00a0not just because I learned about subjects immediately relevant to me (such as Trusts and Wills as well as how to be a Deputy) but because they offered me the opportunity to engage with other carers, share experiences and swap tips.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

They offered me the opportunity to engage with other carers, share experiences and swap tips<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My daughter lives in Supported Living Accommodation now which means I\u2019m able to work part time for WAC. It\u2019s still tricky to juggle my responsibilities but, like increasing numbers of employers these days, WAC offer me the flexibility within my working pattern to be able to care for my daughter in the way that I want to as well.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There has been a cost to all of this. Years of pressure contributed to the end of my marriage and I\u2019ve suffered more than one nervous breakdown. My son was severely bullied at school. But I\u2019m so proud that\u00a0I\u2019ve achieved so much with my daughter. All those years ago the neurologist told me my daughter would never walk or talk. She can now do both of those things to some extent and leads a happy, settled life. And me? Well I can focus on being primarily a mum – to both of my children\u00a0\u2013\u00a0just like all the other mums.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For more information and support, visit:\u00a0https:\/\/www.carersworcs.org.uk\/<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week, the UK is celebrating the unpaid carers who spend their spare time looking after their friends and family. With a lack of support and increasing pressure\u00a0placed on those in the caring community, Carers Week has been organised to celebrate those giving their time for their loved ones while giving them the chance to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2579,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-not-featured-news"],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/www.worcestermusicfestival.co.uk\/features\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Charity2018.jpg",1200,500,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/www.worcestermusicfestival.co.uk\/features\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Charity2018.jpg",1200,500,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/www.worcestermusicfestival.co.uk\/features\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Charity2018.jpg",1200,500,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.worcestermusicfestival.co.uk\/features\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Charity2018-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.worcestermusicfestival.co.uk\/features\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Charity2018-300x125.jpg",300,125,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.worcestermusicfestival.co.uk\/features\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Charity2018-1024x427.jpg",800,334,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.worcestermusicfestival.co.uk\/features\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Charity2018.jpg",1200,500,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.worcestermusicfestival.co.uk\/features\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Charity2018.jpg",1200,500,false]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Andy","author_link":"#"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"News - Not Featured<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"This week, the UK is celebrating the unpaid carers who spend their spare time looking after their friends and family. With a lack of support and increasing pressure\u00a0placed on those in the caring community, Carers Week has been organised to celebrate those giving their time for their loved ones while giving them the chance to…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worcestermusicfestival.co.uk\/features\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worcestermusicfestival.co.uk\/features\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worcestermusicfestival.co.uk\/features\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worcestermusicfestival.co.uk\/features\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worcestermusicfestival.co.uk\/features\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2607"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.worcestermusicfestival.co.uk\/features\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4615,"href":"https:\/\/www.worcestermusicfestival.co.uk\/features\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2607\/revisions\/4615"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worcestermusicfestival.co.uk\/features\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worcestermusicfestival.co.uk\/features\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worcestermusicfestival.co.uk\/features\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worcestermusicfestival.co.uk\/features\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}