Hi guys,

No doubt you have all heard me go on and on about work at some stage or other?! Well here I go again…

I work for a charity called Young Carers – we work with young people who live with and care for someone who may be physically or mentally ill or disabled. These children very often miss out on their childhood and I believe that EVERY child has the right to a childhood. We acknowledge and support these young people for caring for others and also recognise that they need time away from home to have a break and be kids, with no responsibilities, who just have fun!

Just try to imagine for a moment living in a house with a brother or sister who has severe autism or other learning disabilities… we work with so many children in this situation who feel left out because they don’t have as much time with their parents, they often can’t leave the house because their sibling cannot be around other people, they often feel embarrassed about inviting friends around, and then feel guilty for their embarrassment. In many cases they just simply cannot have friends to stay around because the situation is so difficult to manage at home. I recently had a session with a child who asked me what was going to happen to her brother when her mum died – would she have to look after him? Another child told me that they were sad they would never get married as they wouldn’t meet anyone because they would be caring for their sibling. The first child was 9 years old, the second was 11…..

Now try to imagine you live with a parent who has a mental illness… again we work with many young carers in this situation. They often feel worried, anxious and unsure about what is wrong with their mum or dad. They are on edge wondering what mood their parent will be in when they get home from school. In many cases they are scared to leave their parent to go to school in case they harm themselves. These families are so vulnerable and the children we work with need help and support to know where to go when crisis occurs.

We – “Young Carers Milton Keynes” – are a place that provides the understanding and specialist work that these young carers need and want. If you would like to know more about what young carers go through please visit http://www.youngcarers.net/ or just search on google – there is so much out there about these amazing children who are so often unrecognised for all that they do.

So to raise money to keep us going, we (me, my colleague Dave and 2 others) are taking on a cycle challenge to travel over 500 miles in 3 days! We need to raise as much money as possible to raise a huge amount of money so that we can continue the work that we do!! Young carers are so often isolated, lonely and detached from the social world going on around them as they are very often needed at home.

Each year we try to take a small group of children on a 5 day residential to overcome these issues – this costs us around £3000 but is INVALUABLE to the children we take. I genuinely cannot explain the effect this sort of trip has on these children and they are so deserving of it. We run a monthly youth club to offer peer support and a break from home – each club costs around £200 and offers support for up to 30 young carers. We run THREE OF THESE each month!! We also try to run specific training sessions for young carers around understanding illnesses and disabilities and to help them to cope. These also cost money that we just don’t have, so need to find…

Please please please donate whatever you can!!! We would appreciate absolutely anything you can manage to donate – we really would!! To find out more about the cycle challenge go to www.extra-mile.org.uk

Thank you so much for taking the time to read what I have written, these children and their cause means a huge amount to me. Thank you.

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