"We are a coalition of the willing and each of us has a part to play, no matter how large or small."
Professor Saul Becker
When young carer Charlotte Fagan shared the ‘celebrity’ sofa with a charity chief for CBBC Newsround and BBC Breakfast she wasn’t banking on being belle of that charity’s ball at a glittering event in Blackpool just days later.
Simply speaking out on national network TV had been hard enough for the intelligent and eloquent 14 year old from Greater Manchester who admits she was bullied and the subject of ‘misdirected anger’ – ‘when young.’
Most smile when hearing that phrase ‘when young’ from someone so, well, young but there’s nothing like years of near-adult responsibilities to make you grow up fast.
Ask any young carer. There are 700,000 of them at the most conservative estimate in Britain which means there are thousands more.
And many miss out on the fun of childhood along the way, on outings, on after school activities, meeting mates, having holidays.
With mental health issues and substance misuse on the rise more children are having to parent their parents and play mum and dad to little brothers and sisters who wouldn’t get to school on time, let alone washed and dressed and fed, without them.
The trouble is most keep mum about it. Charlotte admits being a young carer taught her to hide her fears behind a smile and a dismissive “I’m fine” if anyone asked.
It was a teacher who finally saw through the disguise and once the mask had cracked the tears flowed and Charlotte finally got the help she needed – and for which her mum had been asking.
Charlotte looks after her mum Ann-Marie who has bipolar disorder, depression and ‘crushing anxiety’. She’s not the only one who’s anxious. Charlotte admits it’s hard not to worry about her mum while at school.
But there’s been a breakthrough; hence that appearance on prime time breakfast television on the day designated Young Carers Awareness Day.
Mum is now controlling her condition with medication. She hates the meds but she’s hit too many crisis points in the past to want to give up now. She admits having admitted herself to hospital in the hope of getting help, paradoxically, for her daughter, not herself, because she knew that caring was taking its toll of Charlotte’s health, and turning her into a target for others.
“Nobody listened,” said Ann-Marie, “not even when I went into hospital to try to give her a break.”
But someone eventually listened to Charlotte. One teacher who saw through “my act” as Charlotte puts it. It was the turning point she needed, along with referral to the young carers support service, and although she’s still a carer, she’s now coping so much better. In fact they all are, dad Chris and mum Ann-Marie too.
It’s turned her into something of a reality TV star of late, albeit with far more dignity than the overblown egos in the Big Brother House.
In fact, Michelle Smith, chief executive of Carers Trust Fylde Coast, and a national media spokeswoman for Carers Trust, the national network of independent partner charities, was so impressed by what she saw, and heard, on those breakfast shows she invited Charlotte, and her family, to come to Blackpool. They live in Altrincham, Greater Manchester.
Michelle hoped Charlotte would speak at her own charity’s winter ball – and what she said clearly resonated with up to 400 guests, politicians, businesses, leading local worthies, public voluntary and statutory sectors and more … because by the time they had polished off the farewell bacon butties at 2am the event had raised £15,010.
And every penny counts towards the charity’s Three in Five campaign to open a new carers’ centre in a resort which needs it more than most: Blackpool. It’s named Three in Five because that’s how many of us will become carers at some point.
In fact, there’s so much social deprivation in parts of town it’s becoming harder to see the hidden carers, of all ages, because there are so many they are hiding in plain sight barely distinguishable from others.
The resort charity helps 4000 unpaid carers. It estimates there are at least 12k more. It has more than 300 young carers registered, is in contact with at least 300 more, and reckons there could be several thousand in need of help locally.
But when Charlotte met the world’s leading authority on young carers – Professor Saul Becker who’s also the new president of the resort carers’ charity – she wasn’t expecting him to thank her for all her good work.
And that’s precisely what happened when Saul, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Birmingham University, and the academic who’s done most to shape social care policy at home and abroad in defence of young carers, met the charity’s ‘other’ guest of honour.
He told the astonished teenager, who owns up to being a social media novice, that she had helped set Twitter alight with more than 2m tweets recorded – across the world - on Young Carers Awareness Day. It was only the second event of its kind in this country organised by national network Carers Trust, of which the resort charity is a partner, and marked a concerted campaign to hammer the message home – complete with a Thunderclap declaration of support by thousands.
The news left Charlotte lost for words until Saul showed her the evidence – all those tweets relating to her appearances on TV, and national coverage, along with those of other teenagers, including young carers in Blackpool who also spoke out.
“You led the way,” Saul told the astonished teenager. “You helped raise more awareness in one day than some succeed in doing in years. You spoke up. It’s an honour to meet you.”
Charlotte’s parents later fought back tears as their daughter addressed 400 guests at the ball at Blackpool's De Vere Herons Reach.
She said: “I used to pretend everything was fine. Inside I was breaking. My story is one in 700k and I’m stood here before you today asking you to support other young carers.”
They did just that. And Charlotte has made some new friends. She met young carers champion Camilla Ball and Lauren Codling, the charity’s partnership development lead, both 21.
They are best friends. Camilla, a carer herself, works directly with young carers. Lauren, a former young carers' champion, is now forging closer links with the business community and forming other alliances. She’s already an astute strategist. Both are an inspiration to Charlotte. “It makes me realise I could do so much more.”
Lauren’s also organising a mass sky dive for the charity later this year – leading from the front as ever and with new trustee Paul Jebb already signed up for the ride. He also happens to be NHS England's Experience of Care professional.
“I’ve booked 30 places to jump out at 11,00ft from a plane – and I want 29 fantastic people to join me,” said Lauren.
It will cost £230 a plummet – and the hope is that sponsorship funds will go up ... all the way down.
Lauren stressed: “Beaverbrooks Charitable Trust has given us a fantastic building but we need to raise £2m to renovate it. If each of you here tonight donated £3 a month for the next five years – and that’s only £36 a year, the cost of a ticket to this ball – it would make £72k for the charity, enabling us to pay a full time worker every year for three years inside that building to make it functional for carers. Dig deep, it’s a fantastic cause.”
Prof Becker agrees. His latest responsibilities include assessing the impact of the Care Act, a year on, looking at evidence offered by carers and carers’ organisations in a review which started this month and will run to the end of March.
Meantime, he’s one of the driving forces behind the Blackpool carers’ charity’s bid to build a better life for local carers. Saul lived in Blackpool until he was 18 and helped his mother care for his grandmother who had Parkinson’s disease, and later helped care for his mother, after she, too, developed Parkinson’s disease.
He reckons that experience helped shape the man he became. “My research over the last 20 years has given me the opportunity, and platform, to cast light on the experiences and needs of all carers, but especially the hidden world of younger carers - children under the age of 18 and young adult carers aged 18-24.
“I can use my research and networks to influence and shape government policy and good practice for the benefit of carers and their families - locally, nationally and internationally.
““All of us at some time in our lives will be carers or on the receiving end of health and social care services.
“There is nothing more honourable and important than ensuring that together we build a deliver a great carers’ centre for Blackpool.
“We must see this not as a cost but an investment for all and in our futures – an investment that is the mark of a decent and civilized society.
“We are a coalition of the willing and each of us has a part to play, no matter how large or small.”
* www.carerstrustfyldecoast.org or call Michelle Smith or Lauren Codling on 01253 393748
