Tag Archives: Parkinson’s disease
The commitment shown by carers should be celebrated all year round
Carers deserve our thanks, and the chance to have a break from their responsibilities, says Jude Habib
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Jude Habib
- Guardian Professional,
A few weeks ago my aunt died. She had been ill with dementia for many years but her death was sudden and unexpected. I loved my aunt dearly but the person I worried most about when she died was her sister, who had tirelessly looked after her for such a long time and was her full-time carer.
When Sara died, my aunt F effectively was made redundant. And it wasn’t for the first time. More than 30 years ago, my grandmother died from Parkinson’s disease, having spent the last years of her life pretty much bedridden. My aunts cared for her selflessly and, in my opinion, at the expense of their own personal lives.
Those memories of visiting my grandmother and how loving and caring my aunts were towards her have always stayed with me.
Parkinson’s offer helpline for carers and sufferers
I AM very honoured to be involved with Parkinson’s UK and one of the many services we provide, of which I am most proud, is our helpline.
This is an invaluable support to the thousands of people who themselves live with this devastating condition, but it is also a vital lifeline for their families and friends.
Touchingly they became carers for one another
They were Shropshire childhood sweethearts
Tuesday 19th July 2011, 10:05AM BST.
For more than 70 years, childhood sweethearts Allen Clifford and his wife Rita were inseparable. Not even Allen being captured as a prisoner of war could keep them apart.
“Rita and I met as 16-year-olds at a church youth club before World War Two,” says Allen, now aged 88, from Telford.
“I was shot down over Germany and interned as a PoW. I subsequently escaped and Rita and I got engaged in 1945 and married in 1946.”
The couple raised a son and lived and worked all over England; Rita as a civil servant and primary teacher, Allen as a lecturer and later an education inspector.
