Author Archives: Maureen
Devoted Kingston carer says mum is number one
David Lulham and his mum
1:50pm Saturday 23rd June 2012 in News By Nazia Dewji
After 30 years of caring around the clock for his elderly mother David Lulham remains devoted to his “number one mum”, but there is one thing the 59-year-old finds hard – lack of sleep.
The ex-motor-mechanic who suffers from back problems, diabetes and cataracts has been living with his 92-year-old housebound mother for 36 years helping to care for her basic needs.
The 59-year-old said: “I sleep every now and then. I am up every hour-and-a-half or so to get my mum to the loo. She goes to the bathroom a lot. I get exhausted sometimes.
“Half the time in the day she is asleep, but as soon as I go to sleep she says ‘David’.
“I’m just used to it now though.”
It helped to realise we were not alone
THE strains of being a carer fall to many people as an elderly parent reaches infirmity, just at the time they’re supposed to be taking things a little easier themselves.
For Yvonne and Geoff Daniell, it came as the Whitchurch couple were preparing to take retirement in April 2010.
They found themselves faced with the responsibility for caring for Yvonne’s mother Ellen, 91, as she was gradually overcome with dementia.
Visits became necessary three or four times a day, with Yvonne’s chores including bathing her mother, shopping, cooking and dressing her.
By the time 68-year-old Yvonne was referred to the Carers’ Support Centre for Bristol, she says she was close to suffering a nervous breakdown herself.
Unpaid carers suffering a negative impact on health
There are more than 551,000 unpaid carers in the South West.
A Carers Week survey showed two in five unpaid carers in the South West are sacrificing their own health by putting off medical treatment to care for an ill, frail or disabled loved one.
Carers Week (June 18 to 24) is run by a consortium of eight national charities: Age UK; Carers Trust; Carers UK; Independent Age; Macmillan Cancer Support; Marie Curie Cancer Care; MS Society and Parkinson’s UK.
