A local young carer has shared their experience of being a young carer and how their role impacts on them:
"I care for my sister and she is 10 years old and has lots of different disabilities. One of the main ones is her attitude, her brain works different. Physically she is 10 but mentally she is maybe 4 or 5. I look after her in many different ways as she is very vulnerable to things like bullying. I often help when she is being bullied and share lots of my things with her, like old clothes as she grows really quick (another part of her disability). At some points it can get mildly annoying as I don't grow as quick so she takes clothes of mine making my selection of clothes a lot smaller. It can also be annoying if I have had a bad day at school and her needing attention is the last thing I need sometimes.
The Junction has really helped me as in Primary I could hardly say a few words when I knew people were looking at me. In my Primary there was a choir group and all of my friends were in it and I wasn't. So for a while at lunches and at breaks I had nobody to hang out with making me become quite depressed, sad, lonely and I only trusted a few individuals, one being my granddad.
It was sad but what surprised me was that the people who see me 5 times a week didn't care and/ or didn't notice. However, the people who see me once a month (The Junction) knew almost instantly and to me that just shows how much they care. And so, they came into my school to talk to me, it was even better because it was someone I knew. It took a while for me to get use to it but I began to trust people again. It also helped me slowly rebuild my confidence."
Thanks to The Junction Foundation for providing us with this insight in to the life of a local carer from one of their young carers.
