A Young Carer

Hi I’m Kathy I care for my granddad who is 78 years old, I have been caring for him since I was 15 but only officially became his ‘carer’ a year ago. Even though he has 5 children of his own and 20 grandchildren, I’m the only one who seems to care. I don’t mind so much though as I was always so connected to him when I was growing up.  Becoming his full time carer meant I needed to move house to be closer to him, this was tricky to move my whole family and it cost us so much money. I went to Centre Link and they put me on a payment, which helped a bit. Moving suburbs meant being organised! Organising things like a new school for the kids but at the time it felt like I wasn’t paying attention, I just did it! Now that I am settled I have been able to work out how many hours I spend with him over a 2 week period and how much the Carers’ payment works out to which is 42c an hour when you include all the cooking, cleaning and shopping. I’m not in it for the money.