Lanarkshire carers feature in national portrait exhibition at Chatelherault to celebrate Carers Week

A significant exhibition of carers’ portraits, 24 hours, which was launched at the Scottish Parliament last September, will open in Chatelherault on 2 June 2008 to celebrate Carers Week.

24 hours is a series of portraits of carers, each one showing the carer seated on the sofa in their own home alongside the person they care for. In some portraits, it is impossible to tell who is the carer and who is the cared for person; in others, it is very obvious. Every portrait has a brief explanation alongside, using the carer’s own words to explain their caring role. The carers portrayed come from all over Scotland and include three carers from Lanarkshire. One of them is Helena, who has looked after her daughter, Lisa, for over 15 years.

Helena says: "Lisa has cerebral palsy but she does the normal things that other teenagers do. She likes the cinema and music and she is her own person and knows her own mind. When she was five, the health visitor said I shouldn’t look at what Lisa can’t do, but at what she can do. I’ve learned a lot from Lisa – having her has made me a better person, a stronger person."

The portraits were taken by Hannah Hills, a rising young star in portrait photography, one of whose portraits was exhibited in the National Portrait Gallery in 2005.

All the portraits have been reproduced in an art quality catalogue, which accompanies the exhibition as it tours Scotland. The catalogue includes a foreword by HRH The Princess Royal, President of The Princess Royal Trust for Carers, who says: "Carers need recognition so that they can access the support which will enable them to continue to care without compromising their own health and wellbeing."

Carers Week is celebrated nationally to raise awareness of who carers are and what they do. The unpaid work that carers do is vital to our society but it comes at a high price for carers own mental and physical health. In its fourteenth year, Carers Week this year takes place from 8 to 15 June and will highlight the impact that caring can have on carers' health and wellbeing.

Harry Stevenson, Executive Director of Social Work in South Lanarkshire, says: "We work closely with carers and the organisations who represent their views. This exhibition is an excellent way of illustrating the valuable role carers play in the life of Scotland. It is also an innovative way of highlighting the issue in a week which celebrates and recognises the role of carers."

Florence Burke, director of The Princess Royal Trust for Carers in Scotland, says: "With one in eight people in Scotland being an unpaid carer, Carers Week is an important time to acknowledge the valuable contribution they make to people’s lives and the public purse. Through working in partnership with local authorities, like South Lanarkshire, The Princess Royal Trust for Carers local carers’ centres provide a vital source of information, advice and support to carers."

24 hours is on view at Chatelherault from 2 to 30 June 2008. The exhibition will be in the visitor centre's Cadzow Gallery, which is open from 10am until 5pm Mondays to Saturdays and from 12 noon until 5pm on Sundays.

The Princess Royal Trust Lanarkshire Carers’ Centre supports carers of all ages, no matter what their circumstances, throughout Lanarkshire. The carers’ centre is based at 46 Campbell Street, Hamilton and can be contacted on 01 698 428 090.