In June, the Liberal Democrat MP Wendy Chamberlain introduced a private member’s bill aiming to give employees with caring responsibilities up to a week of unpaid carer’s leave annually. The Conservatives’ 2019 general election manifesto pledged to introduce leave for working carers, but this has not happened. Unpaid carers have told the Guardian they have lost friendships, gone through marriage breakdowns, been hospitalised and even contemplated suicide as a result of the pressures of caring for a loved one with limited help. The census found that the areas with the highest numbers of unpaid carers were also among the most income-deprived, including St Helens in Lancashire, Neath in south Wales, Ashfield and Mansfield in Nottinghamshire and Knowsley in Merseyside, where one in 25 people provided 50 or more hours of unpaid care a week.Īn estimated 5 million people provide unpaid care in England and Wales Large minorities of unpaid carers are struggling, and a survey of more than 12,000 carers last year found that a quarter were cutting back on food or heating, a third said their mental health was bad or very bad, and 29% said they often or always felt lonely.īetween 20 there were sharp increases in the numbers of unpaid carers eating into savings and cutting back on leisure, hobbies and seeing friends, the research by Carers UK found. About 1.5 million people in England and Wales now spend more than 50 hours a week giving unpaid care. With the social care system struggling with rising unmet care demand and about half a million people in England waiting for help, there has been an increase over the past decade in the proportion of people spending at least 20 hours a week on unpaid care, from 4.2% of the population to 4.7%. Robert Booth Social affairs correspondentįive million people – including children as young as five – provide unpaid care to people with long-term health conditions or problems related to old age, census data for England and Wales has revealed. The voices of individuals in this article resonated.įive million people in England and Wales are unpaid carers, census showsįigures show 1.5m give more than 50 hours a week, as care system struggles with rising demand I’m not anti social, we just haven’t got the support or space to go out and sit with my friends or do something else. Things get somewhat easier as the children become more independent and have less demanding needs.

But I have to be available here, it is relentlessly exhausting in every way. I would love to have something else to do, I’d love to have my own income. Yes I am a mother, but I have no choice about staying at home, I have to stay at home as I’m a carer. I have studied at three of the top 5 universities in the world. Let me get one thing straight, there are many different types of mothers out there but I had a job and career to go with it. Someone said to me ‘oh it must be nice to be a kept woman and not have to work. All funds are retained by Solving Kids Cancer to support Bibi and her family in choosing the right treatments for their child. Therefore those children who do have it are exposed to horrifically painful and damaging treatments in the hope that they might destroy such an aggressive cancer. The government deem that it is not cost effective enough to invest as there are not enough children with neuroblastoma, for example. Please note they need to go abroad as there are not enough treatments available on the NHS for rare cancers such as neuroblastoma. Please support us in helping Bibi beat cancer. It is too much and as I type this it brings me to tears. As a mother, of a child with the same cancer, I know what this feels like. She will now be raising for BiBi who urgently needs treatment (right now!) that is not available on the NHS.īibi and her family have endured too much for too long. Her course, Lidl Mudder, is designed for children. Anaya is going to run a mile long obstacle course which is part of the Tough Mudder brand. She is thankfully in remission and has many ongoing side effects from treatment. Anaya’s sister, Daya, was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma and endured a protracted period of treatment.

3 little bears