Francesca

Simon

Simon "Between a suicide attempt, at say 1 in the morning, is something different to just getting shopping" Simon Law cares for his mother who suffers with ME and severe depression that so far has lead her to try and commit suicide 20 times. Simon is 26 and has been caring for his mother full time for 2 years. He has given up his prospects of moving out from his family home and starting a career in order to be the only one of 3 children to stay in Perranporth with his mother. When Simon gets any spare time away from working and caring he likes to play video games and tries at least once a month to socialise at the pub with his friends.

June

June "You just manage you have to and if your not going to go mad, you find somewhere, hopefully, like the carers groups" June cares for her husband who became paralysed down his left side after a stroke. She had been caring for him for 10 years before he moved into residential care but June still visits most days and cares for him regularly. June has had to make many sacrifices including leaving her house to move into a more accessible bungalow and has had to self fund many additions to make the house more accessible and easy to manoeuvre. In June's spare time she now volunteers with blind people and attends the carers support group every month and on a bank holiday she hosts the carers meeting with a cream tea at her house.

Francesca

Francesca "The easiest part is cleaning his bum, washing him, making sure he's eaten" Francesca cares for her husband and has been for the last few years. Francesca's husband suffers with arthritis and has become very weak and can no longer go up and down the stairs so sits and sleeps in his chair. Francesca is still able to go out in the afternoon when her husband goes to sleep. In this time she chooses to go to art classes, has piano lessons and goes and meets her sister in town every Friday. Even though she can still go out and have a little time to herself, Francesca finds it hard to not think about her husband and finds the worry the hardest part of being a carer. Unfortunately since I met Francesca her husband has passed away.

Lynne

Lynne "I can tell you I do my crying in the shower, even today, I do my crying in the shower, it just gets to you" Lynne cares for her husband who suffers with breathing after a heart bypass where they unfortunately cut the franic nerve, so now he only has one lung and a raised diaphragm and severe heart problems. Ever since this happened 6 years ago Lynne has been caring for her husband. It has changed both their lives dramatically as her husband becomes breathless easily which has stopped them being able to do more active days out together. Lynne now meets with her friend every two weeks for a coffee in town when available and loves to go for a walk when she gets the chance. These activities along with going to the carers meeting, even though rare, allow Lynne to get some time to herself.

Sandy

Sandy "It's a tough road for anybody with any ailment to look after really. Stoke patients are unpredictable" Sandy cared for her husband who was already disabled from multiple car accidents but then suffered from Strokes and multiple TAI's (transient ischaemic attack). They both moved down to Cornwall in the late 90's and soon after they moved Sandy became her husbands carer. Sandy still managed to keep her job and look after their land and farm, due to carers checking in on her husband 3 times a day. Sandy attended and still attends Constantine Carers Group which was an outlet for her to meet new life long friends and step away from her caring role. Now she attends in order to give advice or comfort to new carers in similar situations.