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Thank you for listening
Retired nurse Verity Ludlow cared for
her husband Steve until he passed away
in 2013. A year later she became a
volunteer offering listening support on
our Adviceline. Here she explains why…
When my husband died I was
completely lost. The house felt empty… I felt
empty. We’d been married for 25 years and
it was as though he’d always been by my
side. We both worked for the NHS – he was
an assistant psychologist, I was a specialist
nurse. I was also his full-time carer following
a childhood injury that meant he lived with
spinal tetraplegia.
Without Steve there was a huge vacuum in
my life. I’d already retired, I wasn’t a wife
anymore. I wasn’t a carer either. I’d lost any
sense of identity and I realised I had to learn
to live a different life. So when I read about
the chance to offer listening support as a
volunteer at Carers UK I thought: ‘This could
be something for me’.
I remember being so nervous when I came
up to London from Sussex for the first time
for the training, but it was lovely to be part
of a group of likeminded people, to learn
new skills and to start using old ones again.
As volunteers we don’t give advice but we
give people a space to talk through what’s
happening with them, to feel listened to and
if they do need advice we can book them in
to speak to one of the brilliant staff advisors.
There are some conversations I’ll never forget
– such as one lady who was st