It's not often I get to go to London, but thanks to Alison King and the lovely staff at St Mark's who look after Mo, I was able to go to the Carers UK AGM - yea - I know that sounds like terminal boredom and I did wonder as I shelled out the extortionate £23 for the travel card at Maidenhead Station!
However, it was an amazing day with some amazing people. There were two panels with MPs from all parties facing the wrath of some very well informed carers wanting to know how £150 million pounds given to Primary Care Trusts for respite care had been 'lost'! Others objected to being paid so-called 'benefits' (Carers Allowance) when we are actually doing one of the worst paid and most demanding jobs you could imagine and saving the Government billions of pounds in health care each year. Passions were running high, and there were some very red faces on the panel I can tell you. It was very well managed by John Stapleton of GMTV. I got to ask a question about some of the inequalites in the Disability Living Allowance system for dementia sufferers.
The other benefit of the day was in being able to read most of Mariatu Kamara's remarkable book 'Bite of the Mango'. This amazing young lady has written the account of her tragic experiences at the hands of rebel child soldiers during the civil war in Sierra Leone, her time at the amputee camp in Freetown, and her adoption by a Canadian family in Toronto. It is a shocking but very moving story.
Anyone want to borrow the book?
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1 comment:
I'll borrow please Terry!
Was waiting to see whether you thought it was any good ;-)
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