A little bit about me. I am a single mum with two children, I have a dog called Barney, a hamster called Lilly and two rabbits Dora and Foxy. My mum lives with me on a fulltime basis, she has Alzheimer’s, which is at the advanced stages.

The advance stages of Alzheimer’s can include the following:

In the final stage of this disease, individuals lose the ability to respond to their environment, to carry on a conversation and, eventually, to control movement. They may still say words or phrases, but communicating pain becomes difficult. As memory and cognitive skills continue to worsen, personality changes may take place and individuals need extensive help with daily activities.

At this stage, individuals may:

• Require full-time, around-the-clock assistance with daily personal care
• Lose awareness of recent experiences as well as of their surroundings
• Require high levels of assistance with daily activities and personal care
• Experience changes in physical abilities, including the ability to walk, sit and, eventually, swallow
• Have increasing difficulty communicating
• Become vulnerable to infections, especially pneumonia(http://www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_stages_of_alzheimers.asp)

My mum has all of these symptoms and requires extensive help with everything in her life.

I have cared for my mum for three years now and have had many of the experiences that I believe a lot of other carers have experienced.

It is a great pleasure to look after my mum, however, the stress and strain created by accessing services, dealing with discrimination, fighting for my mum’s rights and dignity is untold. This has made me want to share our experiences.

I believe that live coverage of the life of a carer will give people and politicians an ‘true’ insight into the life of a carer – wouldn’t it be good if policy makers and politicians underwent something similar to ‘Under Cover Boss’ and lived the ‘real’ life and experienced what we as carers experience on a day-to-day basis.

I feel quite confident in saying that they would not be able to cope financially, mentally and maintain a healthy environment for themselves and the person they cared for.

My mum, around two years ago.

My mum, around a year ago.

My mum now.