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When this happened she was restricted on what she could and could not do. One of the things my mum had difficulty with was moving around both in and outside of the house. She also had difficulties with getting the children up and ready for school, getting to and from school, getting them changed out of their uniforms, getting their tea cooked for them, washing their uniforms for the next day, cleaning the dishes after meal times, ensuring the children’s bedrooms where tidy the list is never ending.

These are just some of the duties I had to take over of as a young child to care for my mum and look after my siblings.

I am now currently living on my own and to this day I miss some of the things that I used to do because it meant a lot to me and I really enjoyed it. However there were times when things would be very stressful and I would get ‘down’ and start to feel a little bit depressed but I kept my head held high and kept a smile on my face trying not to show my family how I was truly feeling.

Being a carer at such a young age restricted me from doing a lot of things that other teenagers could do such as going out with their friends, going to the cinema, going swimming or playing football.

I couldn't live a normal teenage life.

It felt as though I was living the life of a fully grown adult. If I am totally honest I would not turn back time and change anything because I really enjoyed being a young carer and I really enjoyed having the chance to experience being a carer.

The Junciton helps young carers

My mum suffers from a lot of illness at the moment such as having a chemical imbalance on her brain which triggers off seizures although my mum is not epileptic. She still has weakness of the left hand side of her body and suffers from depression and panic attacks.

My mum suffered from most of these when I was caring for her, I had such a hard time coming to terms with everything, being a young carer, being like a father figure to my other siblings and not living a normal teenage life. It was hard to listen to other people talking about the great things that they had done with their parents that I couldn't do. It was a very difficult time.

I stopped being a carer for my mum when I moved out when I was 16 years old and now I am living on my own and I'm in college studying to be a fabricator and welder finally living a teenage life. I am really enjoying it but I do miss being a carer, I do still visit my mum and help her out.

But things aren't as they where now when I lived at home with my mum.