As you relax in the sun, spare a thought for the millions of carers selflessly looking after the sick, elderly and disabled 24/7

Three Thinking - Edition 019 - Wednesday 29 July 2015

As you busy about your holiday preparations, I wanted to provide you with some 'food-for-thought', in the form of an extract from Melanie Reid's column in The Times Magazine. Melanie, who is tetraplegic after breaking her neck and back in a riding accident, writes movingly each week, and this week's piece, in which she discussed the supposedly negative connotations of the word 'carer',  was no exception.

"Consider this, as you pack your swimwear and sunscreen: more than four million unpaid carers in the UK will not have a summer holiday. Half of them, in fact, haven't had a holiday for five years. Three quarters of them work more than 50 hours a week and a third of them never get a break of any kind"

Melanie wrote movingly about carers
in the Times Magazine. Image - The
Times.

There are two different types of carer; the selfless souls who take up the role as a career, and the also selfless souls who are thrust into caring for a loved one in need of care and support. The phrase 'unsung hero' seems to have become quite a cliche these days, but I really do believe it rings true for the unpaid carers who give up all their time to care for a loved one, and the often very low paid carers who make giving the sick, disabled and elderly the best life possible the central part of their working lives.

But these 'unsung heroes' who go about their job each and every day, are not saints. It's important we recognise this, writes Melanie, and it's vital we don't take them for granted. Melanie refers to a book by Hugh Marriott when she writes that 'it is perfectly normal to get guilty, angry and frustrated, and understandable to have murderous thoughts about the person you have to look after'. They are not perfect "carers" - they are humans, too. We can never take the contribution they make to millions of lives for granted, and I for one cannot understand why so many selfless carers are forced to get by on the minimum wage.

So here's today's THINK & REFLECT - to spare a thought for the four million unpaid carers, spending each and every day looking after ill or frail relatives , and to perhaps think about what YOU can do to support a friend or family member who works as a carer.