Each month we will be talking to members of the Suffolk Family Carers team so you get to know us, and how we can help you. This month we have been talking to Bev, one of our Talk & Support Volunteers.
How long have you been in your role, and what, in a few words, does it involve?
I’ve been a talk and support volunteer for three and a half years. I phone family carers that have been allocated to me each fortnight as part of the talk and support project to ask how they are feeling and to give them a chance to chat. If needed I can signpost to other teams within Suffolk Family Carers or other services throughout Suffolk.
The focus is person centred, so often the family carer just wants to chat about other things outside their caring role; it might be talking about the weather, their garden, family or what they’ve been doing recently, however they may want to talk about their caring role.
What attracted you to work for the charity?
When I was a family carer, I was referred to the talk and support service, the calls I received gave me much needed support on a regular basis, helped me to get things back in proportion, reminded me I was still “me” and not just a carer, they enabled me to “switch off” and just chat about whatever I wanted. I felt passionate that I wanted to use my experience as a family carer in a positive way to help others.
What makes you passionate about the role of the carer?
I was referred to Suffolk Family Carers when I was looking after my mother who had terminal lung cancer and my husband who had Parkinson’s and related dementia. I’m passionate about the role of the carer because through this personal experience I know how hard the job can be and how alone you can feel. However supportive family and friends are they leave and go back to their normal lives, this is your new normal and you can’t walk away. I know how easy it is to lose your sense of self and self-worth, and to question whether you can cope and what’s good enough.
Outside of your Suffolk Family Carers world, how do you like to spend your time, and who with?
I have three very grown up children, two grandsons and a large noisy dog. Plus a large garden, still work in progress with a veg patch with too many courgettes at present! I volunteer as an usher at local theatre, and with a local charity promoting the importance of reading from early years. We do story times in playgroups and nurseries – I love reading to children using props and voices to bring stories alive. There are so many fantastic children’s books now. I enjoy walking in the lovely Suffolk countryside, swimming in the sea and rivers (only when its sunny!), doing yoga. I hope to do the final 100km of the Pilgrims way in Northern Spain next year – its been postponed twice!
How do your family or colleagues describe you?
Kind, empathetic, generous, independent, articulate, positive, reliable
Do you have any surprise skills which people may not know about you?
I appeared on stage as an Irish social worker while four months pregnant, amazing what you can hide under a tweed suit.
What do you love most about living in Suffolk, and are there particular places you love to go?
Being near the sea, the huge skies, history, Sutton Hoo – I saw the exhibits in the British Museum as a schoolgirl but never expected to be living here with the site on the doorstep. Many Tudor buildings, Bury St. Edmunds Cathedral especially the new tower.
Name three words which sum up the role of a carer:
Challenging, sometimes exhausting but satisfying.
