Carers Week is an annual awareness campaign that celebrates and recognises the vital contribution of the UK’s unpaid carers – supporting family members and friends who are older, younger, have a disability, mental or physical illness or need extra help with everyday life.
What is a carer?
A carer is someone who provides unpaid care and support to a family member or friend who has a disability, mental or physical illness, substance misuse issue, or who simply needs extra help, understanding and support in managing daily life.
For some, taking on a caring role can be sudden: someone in your family, or a close friend, becomes acutely unwell, has an accident or is diagnosed with cancer.
For others, caring responsibilities can grow gradually over time, as mental or physical health may fluctuate or gradually worsen.
The amount and type of support that carers provide varies considerably. It can range from a few hours a week, such as picking up prescriptions and preparing meals, to providing emotional support or personal care day and night.
Caring will touch each and every one of us in our lifetime, whether we become a carer or need care ourselves. Whilst caring can be a rewarding experience, it can also have a huge impact on a person’s health, finances and relationships.
Carers Week
Carers Week, established by Carers UK 27 years ago, is an annual awareness campaign which takes place to celebrate and recognise the vital contribution made by the UK’s 6.5 million carers. It is also a time of intensive local activity with hundreds of activities planned for carers across the UK.
Hundreds of activities are taking place across the country during Carers Week and many people have Added Their Voice on the Carers Week website to make caring visible this year. To find out more about activities across the UK visit https://www.carersweek.org/
Many family members and friends we speak to, at NCUK, do not see themselves as carers – they are partners, family, friends or neighbours – indeed many with Neuroendocrine Cancer provide care for loved ones : “it’s what you do, isn’t it?”
Join us in thanking those who provide a helping hand, a listening ear, who care – lets highlight the vital role carers play in our communities and draw attention to just how important caring is.
