Carers and the life they struggle with

When we get any illness whether it is dementia, cancer or something else which turns out to be a long term illness, we are buried by the diagnosis and what is going to happen, not always thinking of what may be coming in the future.

Some people refuse to accept any diagnosis and leave others to pick the pieces up at a later date.

Like many I spend time trying to keep my head above water, keeping active while trying to keep control over my life, something which does not always come naturally, but I feel that I have to try, not just for myself but also for my wife and family.

If you are lucky you may be blessed with having plenty of support and good quality services around you. You may even have had good quality support from the diagnosis onwards, but these days that all depends on where you live.

But there are few local places where our loved ones can go for support, simply because this is patchy, as like it or not everyone with these illness is so different to anyone else, so support for one carer may not help someone else.

Caring is a voluntary role with little training, it's a case of feeling your own way as you go, and coping with problems as they come. It sounds easy in principal, but I know that could never do it, but then my brain is not so good anymore these days, so how do these people cope with a role that they never expected to do.

To the governments these carers are a very good way to save the country lots of money, because like it or not, these wonderful people do save the UK hundreds of millions of pounds each year.

But the sad thing is that no matter what any government says, I personally feel that they have little or no respect for any carer, if they did they would make sure that carers were given the support they badly need, financially etc, from professionals. But these days there are very few professionals in the community who know about these illness and truly care about their work genuinely.

So perhaps now it's time for a change, to ensure that all carers, who like it or not are our 24 hour back up and support, get support themselves and get it from the government services at no extra cost to ourselves.

This rest should also cover a weekends rest when needed, because it cannot be easy looking after someone 24 hours a day 7 days a week, while ignoring your own needs.

These people pick us up when things don't work the way they should and support us through the worst periods, yet like it or not this puts a great deal of pressure and added stress on them

These illnesses are not self inflicted yet we are penalised because we need support, this in turn puts extra pressure on our loved ones and carers who have to work their way through government legislation and red tape.

I do think many governments think that if we don't understand where to look we cannot claim the support we may need.

This illness is cruel, but it must be so hard for our carers to watch this illness take away our lives, and our dignity.

God bless all carers as without them we would all be lost.