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To find out more about Carers UK please go to:

Or write to: Carers UK, 20 Great Dover Street, London SE1 4LX

Or call: 020 7378 4999

Tiggy and I were on honeymoon in 2003 when I became ill with cancer. It was debilitating – for both of us. During chemotherapy I became afraid and insular – Tiggy had dropped everything to care for me, yet these months were among the toughest and loneliest of her life.

Just before Christmas 2013 the roles were reversed. Tiggy was diagnosed with a particularly aggressive form of breast cancer. It was my turn to care for her.

Both times caring pushed our relationship to the brink, but we also touched depths of love we’d never otherwise have reached. Certainly it left us with a real understanding of how isolating it can be to care for the people we love.

That’s why we are so pleased to be able to help Carers UK: the charity Tiggy desperately needed 12 years ago when caring stopped her in her tracks.

At the time, we didn't know about Carers UK – their Adviceline where experts are on hand with the information you desperately need, or to listen when you just need to talk; their online forum where you can share what’s keeping you awake with people who just get what you’re going through.

Whether it arrives like a bombshell or creeps up slowly, caring will affect us all at some point in our lives. Please help Carers UK break isolation and be there with support right from the start.

Every day, 6,000 people become carers, looking after loved ones who are older, disabled or seriously ill. Most are simply not prepared for what lies ahead.

Carers hold families together and help loved ones get the most out of life. Yet many carers are stretched to the limit – putting their own health and finances on the line, especially if they've sacrificed work to care. It can be exhausting and very lonely.

Carers UK are here to make life better for carers.

Every day their Adviceline responds to carers desperate for advice and information, and our online forum never sleeps, providing a constant source of support and understanding for those who have struggled alone for too long.

But they’re not reaching everyone who needs their help. This year is Carers UK 50th anniversary and their message is simple: no one should have to care alone.

At some point in our lives, we’re all going to care or need care ourselves. It can happen suddenly – a birth, an illness, an accident – or it can creep up on us slowly, as our loved ones grow older and live longer with disability.

Your donation can enable them to be there with support and advice right from the start. Together, we can break carer isolation.

Ros has Multiple Sclerosis. Since she was diagnosed, her husband Norman has looked after her.  He had a well-paid job in IT, but the cost of Ros’s care workers put a big dent in their finances.

Norman said, ‘At one stage we were forking out £2000 a month so that I could go to work. So I took a second mortgage on the house. You’re then still faced with financial challenges on a daily basis.’

Then Ros’s health deteriorated to a point where Norman had to give up his job to care for her full time.

Norman said, ‘Suddenly I was in serious trouble. Then you slip into arrears on something and then you get constant phone calls.  How much can you pay now, when can you pay this? It feels like a huge pressure cooker that you’re living in and there doesn’t seem to be any way to ease that pressure.’

Unable to afford the mortgage, Norman and Ros ended up losing their house.

Norman said, ‘To end up with nothing, it was just shattering and we were just fighting all the time and we weren’t supporting each other.  It was just one long argument.’

And with little money left, the logistics of managing Ros’s care became even harder for Norman.

Norman said, ‘You’re not just dealing with one issue because you've got the NHS, you've got social services, you've got the local authority. I couldn't see a way out of it, I honestly couldn't. I was really crushed by it because I felt an absolute failure.’

Carers can find it hard to navigate a way through the maze of bureaucracy, and nearly half of carers miss out on financial support because they don’t get the right information and guidance, which is why Carers UK provide expert help via their Advice line, funded completely through donations.

Norman said, ‘My first call to Carers UK was the first time someone listened to me. She said have you done this, have you tried that?  Have you spoken to so and so? It was suddenly like a curtain had been opened for me and that there was a possibility that I could actually get through this and get to a better place.’

Getting the right advice can make an enormous difference to a carer’s ability to cope.

Norman said, ‘It was as though someone had undone the pressure cooker a few notches and I could literally feel my shoulders, instead of being pulled down like that, I sat there relaxed.’

Thanks to Carers UK the couple are now back on an even keel.

Norman said, ‘I’m no longer isolated, I no longer sit there and fret. I’m not embarrassed to ring and ask. Because I now feel that what I’m doing is valuable and Carers UK gave me that.’

Anne said, ‘I was still working full time and suddenly I was doing 50 hours a week at work, 50 hours a week caring, and there was no time left over. I was on this treadmill, if I was on the train on the way to work I was ordering food or I was on the phone to the doctor, social services.’

As an only child, there was no one else to share the caring load with, and as the years went by Anne found it increasingly difficult to manage everything.

Anne said, ‘I loved my mother more than anything else, but at the same time, I dreaded the weekend when I would be caring 24/7. I felt guilty because I frequently wanted to be elsewhere. I was feeling very alone. And I wanted someone to talk to about it but didn't really know where to go for that help.’

Anne searched the internet and came across the Carers UK forum, an online community where carers like her can share experiences and support each other.

Anne said, ‘I was looking at some posts and I saw one from this woman called Sue.’

Soon Anne and Sue were chatting regularly.

Anne said, ‘I think the forum and indeed the friendship I got with Sue enabled me to carry on caring longer. The role of caring is the most difficult job I've ever had you need every ounce of support to get through it and I think that’s what Carers UK can provide.’