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Your story , our story
One of the central themes of our Members Conference this year was the power of telling our stories
That ’ s how our movement started 52 years ago , when Reverend Mary Webster shared her personal story of caring for her parents with absolutely no recognition or support .
It was this story , simply told in a letter , which caught the attention of a national newspaper . All over the UK , others recognised that her story was their story , too . Each story unique in its way , but coming together to form a powerful narrative which brought caring out of the shadows .
What started with an individual story became a national movement .
As the story has developed over the past half-century we ’ ve seen new rights , changing attitudes and major demographic shifts which have made caring feel very different now to how it was in the beginning . But it ’ s the same story .
Caring for our loved ones is right at the heart of what it
“ What started with an individual story became a national movement ” is to be human , yet for the 6,000 people who become carers every single day , it can still feel like being thrust into a completely separate world .
The veil between these worlds is paper thin – no one is more than an accident , an illness , a gene mutation away from becoming a carer . Yet it can feel like a huge gulf in understanding .
Whether in person , in writing , on film or however we choose - by telling our personal stories as carers we can help to close this gap and open up the reality of what our world is like .
This is precisely what drove Carers UK member Steph Nimmo to start writing about her experience of caring for her daughter , Daisy – trying to help others grasp what life is like caring for a life-limited , fragile child . Trying to be heard and understood .
Sharing what it ’ s like to be bone-achingly exhausted yet have no opportunity to sleep . What it ’ s like to be responsible
Mary Webster
“ by telling our personal stories as carers we can help to close this gap and open up the reality of what our world is like ”
for administering the intravenous infusions that keep your child alive . What it ’ s like to see your child in the hold of a violent seizure and have no idea when the next is coming .
18 carersuk . org