Carer Support South Lakes awarded almost £100,000 in funding
Debi Marsden, Chief Operating Officer of Carer Support South Lakes
A Cumbrian charity supporting unpaid carers who look after their loved ones has secured two vital pieces of funding to help its work.
Carer Support South Lakes (CSSL) has been awarded almost £100,000 by BBC Children in Need to aid its work with young carers. And it has received a substantial grant from the Eric Wright Charitable Trust, most of which will be used to help carers who look after loved ones with dementia.
The BBC Children in Need award of £97,976.00 over three years will enable the charity, which works with carers of all ages, to provide one-to-one support to its young carers aged 5-18. It will fund residential activity trips to give them a break from the pressures involved in looking after loved ones who are ill.
A CUMBRIAN broadcaster has been announced as the first ever patron of a charity that supports unpaid carers in the area. Caz Graham, from Kendal, says she is excited and honoured at being announced as patron of Carer Support South Lakes, which supports hundreds of unpaid carers each year. The Kendal-based charity helps people of all ages to cope with the pressures of looking after loved ones. Ms Graham, who broadcasts nationally on BBC Radio 4, believes the support offered by the charity is vital to so many. “Carer Support South Lakes is a crucial organisation for anyone of us who is suddenly hit by the “freight-train” that is having to care for someone we love,” she said.
BBC Radio 4 broadcaster becomes patron for Cumbrian charity
Caz Graham, The new patron of Carer Support South Lakes
A BBC Radio 4 broadcaster who was touched by the impact caring has had on her friends has become a patron for a charity that supports them.
Carlisle-born Caz Graham says she’s excited and honoured at being announced as the first-ever patron of the charity Carer Support South Lakes, which supports hundreds of unpaid carers each year.
Caz says she began to fully understand the vital role the charity plays after seeing close friends become carers for their loved ones.
“Nobody knows when it is going to happen, and nobody really understands it until it touches you or your close friends,” she said.
Carer Support South Lakes is a Kendal-based charity providing services and support to children and adults who, unpaid, care for others. At any one time they can be supporting a six-year-old, who is helping to look after a sibling, parent or grandparent, or a man in his fifties caring for his wife who has cancer - right up to an 80-year-old caring for a sister with dementia. The charity estimates there are more than 12,000 carers in the South Lakes area, and they currently support 1,350, only a fraction. A carer is anyone who cares, unpaid, for a friend or family member who, due to illness, disability, a mental health problem or an addiction, cannot cope without their support.
A CHARITY providing services and support to unpaid carers is finding new ways to help those suffering in isolation. Carer Support South Lake are worried that those in need of their help are becoming increasingly isolated during the Coronavirus pandemic. A spokesperson for the charity said: We are all living in increasingly disconnected times, with many of our Carers feeling more and more isolated. Carer Support South Lakes have been busily developing a new way of staying in touch. The team came up with the idea of Carer Connect. Carer Connect allows users to speak with other Carers, find support, and access vital information when they need it.