Becky's Story

Hello I’m Becky Slater, some of you may know me as chocobas, I am 17 years old and I am a young carer for two people in my life.

As some of you may know, I care for my Mam Lynne who has MS and my sister Nicola (20), who has cerebral palsy. I started to help look after Nicola when I was growing up by helping to fetch things for her. I always knew that Nicola needed extra care; I never questioned why she was different than me but as I grew older I became more aware of her disability. The cerebral palsy affects her walking, speech, learning and co-ordination and she uses a wheelchair for long periods of time like when we go out shopping together because of her legs and balancing problems.

My Mam, Nicola and I love our shopping; we call them our girly days out. Everything was fine until about 8 years ago now when my Mam was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). She always said the MS would never affect her but unfortunately it has. She uses a walking stick and has crutches and a wheelchair as now she can’t walk far because of her legs and balancing problems just like Nicola. Because of this we can’t do our girly days out no more because of the two wheelchairs.

Now my Mam is not as active as she used to be I am needed to help care for Nicola, I help Nicola in and out of bath and do her hair. I also try and take them out together just like what we used to do, we tend to just go to the large shopping center abut 20 minutes away from where we live as Nicola can push herself with it being all flat and I push Mam. Because my Mam was so used to having her independence, last year she bought herself an electric scooter so now we can go out together for the girly days out again.

I bought my Mam some stickers for the back saying ‘look at me it’s my legs that don’t work’ as I was sick of people looking at her because when you look at my Mam she looks like any other person. I get dodgy looks off people and they smile like they feel sorry for me, which I really hate, all I am doing is shopping with my Mam and sister, why stare? I get really irritated with people looking at us, especially when you park in a disabled bay they look at you to see if you get a wheelchair out, and when we get two out they don’t know how quickly to turn away.

I know that my life and your lives are different from other young people but I wouldn’t change the fact that I am a young carer. I do what any other person would do for their family in need.