Are you prepared to care?
The majority of people won’t understand what I’m asking here, and until I was diagnosed with breast cancer it would have been a question I’d of thought I would never need to consider. How wrong could I have been, when I was diagnosed with breast cancer I had a 5 month old baby, and having chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery left me unable to look after myself let alone a 5 month old baby for a period of 18 months.
My husband became my carer, not something you ever envisage happening in your 30’s!
When my husband was caring for me we didn’t acknowledge he was my carer, he was just doing the things I couldn’t manage, but looking back if we had realised we would of been able to get much more support instead of muddling thorough on our own. This is why campaigns such as Carers Week are so important, Carers Week is a weeklong awareness campaign, aimed at improving the lives of carers and the people they care for. There are 6.4 million carers in the UK and every day at least 6000 people start caring, many of these people will be like my husband and not even consider themselves as carers, they are just doing what anyone would do in their position, looking after their loved ones. Carers Week this year is 10th to 16th June and will focus on how effectively the Government is supporting the growing numbers of carers and the impact of caring on daily life. Furthermore with an aging population and more people getting serious illnesses such as cancer and higher incidences of disability, the number of carers is only set to grow. The Week will also help those already caring to make sure they are finding all the practical and emotional support they need. You can get involved in Carers Week by completing their on-line survey telling them about your experiences of caring.
Carers Week is also the week we are holding the Insurancewith “Who Cares Award” presentation lunch. Because of my experience of being cared for I have seen firsthand how people put their lives on hold to care for loved ones, and I wanted, through Insurancewith, to recognise what carers do and to that end have created the Award to find the UK’s most extraordinary carer. If you know someone who deserves this award, they can be your carer or just someone you know who cares, young or old, either professionally or for a loved one, please nominate them. You can nominate on-line at the Insurancewith web site or print the form off and send it to the address shown.
Raising awareness about caring is vital, particularly for accidental carers such as my husband, if we had acknowledged he was a carer we would have been able to access some much needed support.
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