Nicola's Story
Nicola is a Young Adult Carer who has been caring for her mum since she was a teenager. This is her story in his words.
She was the main carer for the family.
The caring role at the beginning didn’t really include much as her mom was a bit tired so I would take the dog out in the afternoon maybe at night if my dad was tired or anything like that but as she deteriorated my caring role became a lot bigger and a lot more tasks were added to it.
I never really identified myself as a young carer, I was just looking after my mum.
I can only share my own experiences and thoughts and they’ve all been very beneficial
thanks to the young carer service.
my name’s Nichola McDonald and I’m a young adult care.
I became a young carer when i was 13 after my mum was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
I was the main carer for the family. My sister and my brother were at Glasgow uni and my dad worked in Glasgow, so he was commuting backwards and forwards every day, so the role came on to me. The caring role at the beginning didn’t really include much, my mum was just a bit tired, so I would take the dog out in the afternoon maybe at night if my dad was tired or anything like that, but as she deteriorated my caring role became a lot bigger and a lot more tasks were added to it. This meant that I was making dinners, walking the dog, the household chores, making sure that she got her medication, going down and picking up prescriptions and all those kinds of roles that a 13/14-year-old shouldn’t really need to think about that kind of moment in time…
And on top of this I also had school, so as my caring role got more demanding my mum’s nurse referred me to the young carer service which I never really heard of before and
I never really identified myself as a young carer, you hear about being a young care of these people applying medications to parents, maybe bathing them and looking after younger siblings and stuff and that wasn’t me.
I was just looking after my mum just like anybody would do if your mum was sick but when I went to the caring service it was kind of a godsend for me because I didn’t really know that I was a young carer at that point, but as long the more time that I was getting help from the staff there and from the other carers I began to realize I was a young carer and I began to wear that badge of honour as if my parent is my school friends had asked what are you doing on a Thursday night? or are you free to go for a walk? I would sometimes make up a lie saying oh no my nana’s coming around or oh sorry I can’t, I’m not feeling very well.
We would like to thank Linda for taking the time to share her story with us. If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this story, please contact the Centre for support.