Jacqueline cares for her 15 year old daughter Kayleigh who has brittle asthma, a weak heart, a bone condition and brain damage which means she is unable to read or write and has issues with her short term memory. She also cares for her 74 year old father Derek who has atrial fibrillation, an aneurism and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).
Carers often don’t seek outside support until they reach breaking point. For Jacqueline, that breaking point came when her father’s health worsened and he was admitted to hospital.
“I got to the point where I thought ‘I can’t do this’. At that time, several months ago, I noticed a flyer about Carer Support Wiltshire in my GP surgery.
“My father’s illness was rapidly deteriorating and I knew I needed some help. I had seen the flyer in there before but I didn’t feel like I was in need and didn’t want to trouble anyone.”
Up until that moment, Jacqueline had got by with little outside support and coped with the great help from her 19 year old son David, 12 year old daughter Taylor-Ann and partner Gregory.
Once registered with Carer Support Wiltshire, a support worker went out to visit and provided some great support. They talked her through the various help and services that she could access and each organisation was contacted individually on Jacqueline’s behalf.
“I had no idea that there were people [like Carer Support Wiltshire] who could help with things such as helping to apply for financial entitlements, social club information for my father and details of telecare options.
“I went through a huge list of things that I wanted to try and sort out and they just took care of it. It really took away a small burden.”
There are a lot of ‘sandwich’ carers who are looking after both a child and a parent like Jacqueline.
The demands of her dual caring role has meant that she places her own health on the back seat. A recent health scare of suspected lung cancer was left in the background for some time because she couldn’t contemplate ‘having the time to be ill’.
“My father’s illness is now at the stage that we don’t know how much longer he’s going to be around.
“But I now know that I can email Carer Support Wiltshire and have a rant if things are getting me down. They’re brilliant.”
We don’t want carers to reach breaking point before getting in touch. If you register with us when you’re coping, it means we’ll already be there if and when you’re not.
