Rachael’s story
Hello, I’m Rachael, a 22 year old young adult carer living near Inverness in the Scottish Highlands, and I care for a member of my immediate family.
Even though my caring role can be quite tough at times, I am incredibly grateful for the support I receive from both my university and my employer. They have both ensured that I have people I can go to for support, advice or to even have a chat with, while introducing some flexibility into what they expect of me so that I have a bit more time for when I find juggling everything to be more challenging.
The support has reminded me that I’m not alone, and people do want to help.
However, I have seen social isolation put up a barrier to the bit of normality I can get. This is something I would love to see being tackled. Ideally, I’d love to have more chances to meet with young adult carers, as we are still young in the sense of our age but grown up by our responsibilities.
Moving forward, it would be incredible to have the rights of young carers and young adult carers to be known. As a carer, I advocate for someone else, it would be amazing to see decision makers advocate for me, my rights and my experiences.