Hi! I’m Casey

I am 18 and live in Queensland. One unique thing about me is that I have lots of experience with technology.

I have been caring for my mother for 13 years. My mother requires care because she has Parkinson’s disease and is unable to perform most functions. I have to care for my mother because she is my family and I care about her. However, I also have to focus on school studies in order to pass. Just like me I’d imagine other young carers would also have to spend a lot of time caring for their family and friends.

A good day caring for my mother is when she is not feeling as sick as usual and not requiring much assistance. While a bad day caring for my mother is when she is feeling worse than usual and needing a lot more help.

Being away from my mother makes me feel extremely anxious due to the thought that if something bad were to happen to her, I would not be around to help her.

Being a carer has changed my life because spending a lot of my time helping out my mother meant not much time to build friendships. Because of my caring role I am unable to spend as much time with friends or doing my own thing.

Being a carer has taught me that when the going gets tough, all you can really do is keep going. I would cope better with my caring role if I could take a little bit of time off every now and then. My piece of advice to my fellow young carers is to never give up, you are doing a truly amazing thing for the people you are caring for.

Other stories

Sophie’s story

Hi! I am Sophie. I am 13 years old and I live in Melbourne Victoria. It’s been 1 year since I have been a young carer for my brother.  I am the oldest of 3 kids in our family.  My brother, was diagnosed with autism when he was 3.5 years old and could not talk […]
Read full story

Maria’s Story

My name is Maria, I am 15 and live in Queensland. One unique thing about me is I play basketball. I have been caring for my mother for 12 months. My mother requires care because she has a really bad mental state and forgets thing frequently. I have to care for my mother because I […]
Read full story

I didn’t know I was a young carer

I’m Tom, I’m 22 and I’m from Newcastle, NSW. Originally I was a carer for my nan, who lived with us. Mum was a single parent, so she worked full time. Then unfortunately, when Nan passed away my mum couldn’t cope with it. She essentially had a nervous breakdown. I had to step in and […]
Read full story