‘Most carers are happy to preserve the person they love’

IN an age when celebrity is currency, Martin Cullen wishes the men who put African poverty on the agenda would do the same for family carers.

“What I would like is to see Bono or Bob Geldof involved. We need people of their status to raise the type of awareness The Carers Association deserves,” Martin says.

Martin, 46, from Clondalkin, is one of the country’s 161,000 carers, an unseen army of volunteers carrying out the kind of work the state would otherwise struggle to provide.

He has cared for his 85-year-old mother Margaret for the past eight years, bathing her, dressing her, feeding her and fighting on her behalf for her rights.

He used to be a freelance hairdresser and his mother kept his appointments book, but that was a lifetime ago. His mother’s stroke and Parkinson’s Disease put paid to any kind of personal life and instead he took on the role of full-time carer.

He was the youngest of four brothers, the only one left at home, a profile common among carers, he says.

On weekdays, Geraldine, the home help, comes in for an hour and helps out with his mum, who, at 11 stone, can be difficult to keep upright while he dresses her. Some days, if he doesn’t rise early enough to stay on top of things, it can be evening before he gets to have a shower.

He does not resent the way his life has turned out. “I don’t feel hard done by,” he says. “Most carers are of a similar mind set, they are happy to preserve the person they love.”

In the early days he found it tough going, and when alone with his thoughts, could break down. The Carers Association was his lifeline. “They told me it was normal to feel like that, they have been such a help to me, telling me my rights, helping me to fight for incontinence pads, a hoist, all the form-filling, they are always at the end of the phone.

“I would encourage anyone who is a carer to join The Carers Association.”

The Carers Association’s new membership campaign was launched in Dublin yesterday.

Supporting the campaign, broadcaster and patron of The Carers Association, Marty Whelan said the drive was being launched “to get the country thinking about who carers are and to recognise the value of their enormous contribution to society”.

*The Carers Association can be contacted on the National Careline Freefone 1800 24 07 24 or see www.carersireland.com