My name is Josh, I’m 11 and I am a young carer. I have a 14 year old sister called Sky who has autism, tourettes syndrome and suffers with multiple seizures every day.
Sky needs help with lots of things, like helping her understand stuff and trying to calm her when she has a meltdown, but most of the help I give to Sky is with her seizures.
She has to be watched at all times to make sure that when she has a seizure she is safe. When she has a seizure I have to make sure that she does not harm herself, that her head is protected (especially if she doesn’t have her helmet on) and that she’s on her side. It’s also important to remove food from her mouth if she has a seizure while eating because she may choke. I will then call my parents and they take over.
Sky having seizures daily can be hard on the whole family as we cannot leave her alone or do certain things that could be unsafe for her. It is very hard on Sky too as she cannot do a lot of things that she used to, she cannot even be upstairs by herself or have a bath alone for safety reasons.
I don’t like seeing my sister go through what she does, it is very sad.
I joined Gloucestershire Young Carers in 2017 and it has been fabulous. I have made some wonderful friends and had some great experiences. I go to group every two weeks and have been to some workshops. Gloucestershire Young carers offer children like me a chance to have a break and to make friends with children who care for others too.
