Growing up too quickly

Young Carers

The 2001 Census found there were 175,000 young carers, of which some 13,000 were providing more than 50 hours of help a week.

Megan Carr, 14, of Barnes Road, South Shields, grew up knowing her mother, Mandy, 42, suffered from rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis.

She would help out around the house, but it wasn’t until last year that her caring role became more demanding.

Dad Darren said: “Mandy lost a lot of weight and the doctors couldn’t work out why.

“We found out afterwards that she had neutropenic sepsis, where the body doesn’t produce enough white blood cells to fight off infection.

“She was constantly tired and couldn’t do a lot for herself. Megan used to help her.

“She would go shopping and help out around the house.”

Although her parents were separated, Megan was helped by her dad and half-sister, Cheryl, now 21, but Mr Carr admits she did “the lion’s share” of the work.

He got in touch with the Young Carers Project, run by the Carers Association in South Tyneside, early last year to make sure she had support outside of the family.

Although her mum died in August, just a few months after she joined, Megan remains a committed member and helps out with the younger ones.

She’s just picked social care in her options at South Shields Community School and wants to work with young people in the future.

Megan said of her caring role: “I didn’t really mind doing it.

“I didn’t know anything different.

“I knew she had arthritis, but I didn’t realise how bad she was towards the end until we got her a stairlift and she started using it more and more.

“That is how I knew the illness was getting a lot worse. It was getting hard for her to walk up and down stairs. Sometimes she didn’t come downstairs at all.”

Being a carer didn’t affect her work at primary school, she said, but she found it more difficult to juggle her role with things like homework when she went to secondary school.

However, her parents were keen that she still saw her friends as often as possible.

She said: “I have got a lot of friends who knew about my mam and they knew when I said I couldn’t go out, I couldn’t go out, and that was why.”

Mr Carr said: “I think Mandy felt guilty having to rely on her daughters so much.

“There were times when they didn’t do what she wanted and she felt frustrated that she couldn’t do it.

“She wouldn’t ask for help a lot of the time, hence why she would often just stay in bed.”

As well as using her experience as a carer in a future career, Mr Carr believes it will make his daughter a stronger person.

He added: “She’s ahead of all her classmates in life. She’s had to grow up quite quickly.”

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