Category Archives: Carers

Carer writes to PM: Carers are being treated like second class citizens

March 20, 2014   benefits, Carers, stroke, ukcuts
Ex-Nunney woman writes to David Cameron: Carers are being treated like second class citizens

By Somerset Standard  |  Posted: March 20, 2014

 

Bryony Brook, second right, her husband Elliott and daughters Phoebe and Amber with Mayor Belinda Donovan at the launch of the Goaloids sculpture on Shepherds Bush Green

A FORMER Nunney woman has written to Prime Minster David Cameron in disgust at her treatment since her husband died suddenly over Christmas.

Mother-of-two Bryony Brook, who now lives in Bruton, cared for her husband Elliot for six years after he suffered a stroke in 2007 aged just 37.

Mr Brook, an artist and photographer, died suddenly on Christmas Eve 2013 of pancreatitis.

Since then Mrs Brook said she has had no support from the Government after being refused bereavement and widows’ payment, the mobility car she relied on was taken away and all her other benefits stopped.

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Disabled girl ‘lost in the system’ by Birmingham City Council for four years

March 20, 2014   autism, Carers, disability, special needs

Birmingham City Council “singularly failed” a disabled child “lost in the system” for more than four years, the Local Government Ombudsman has ruled.

A report said the authority failed to contact the girl’s mother from November 2006 to March 2011 to assess support payments.

It added social workers had not identified the girl’s “complex needs” and left her mother to raise her alone.

The council has agreed to pay £5,000 following the ombudsman’s report.

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West Suffolk: Husband’s love helps keep Dorothy’s dementia at bay

March 19, 2014   Alzheimer’s, Carers, dementia, Parkinsons

Brian Atkinson and his wife Dorothy are backing our Forget Me Not campaign

Emma Brennan West Suffolk chief reporter
emma.brennan@archant.co.uk
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
10:00 AM

Brian Atkinson and his wife Dorothy are backing our Forget Me Not campaign 

During the past six years of their long and happy marriage, that promise has certainly been put to the test after Mrs Atkinson was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2008.

Two years later, the condition developed into Lewy bodies (DLB), a type of dementia that shares symptoms with both Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. Since then her memory has been deteriorating progressively.

Mr Atkinson, 86, who is supporting our Forget-Me-Not campaign for West Suffolk Hospital, said: “Dorothy can remember family history and things like that, but not what happened two hours ago.

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