Tag Archives: breaks

Carer Stories

A visit to John Tucker’s garden

John Tuckers GardenStory by Rosie Hurley

Wednesday 6th July saw a group of carers head to John Tucker’s garden for the afternoon. After being rescheduled from the week before due to rain, luckily the sun was shining as John and his wife Alison opened up their garden for us to have a look around.

In Box, with wonderful views looking across the valley, John and Alison’s garden had clearly been cared for over the years. From a pond at one end to an impressive vegetable plot at the other, with a cosy summer house and an apple tree in between, it was no surprise to hear that John has had many years of green-fingered experience.

Having been deputy manager at Prior Park Garden Centre, John has led a number of other gardening breaks at the Carers’ Centre, and he leads the gardening volunteer team, who meet every Thursday morning to tend to the Centre’s garden.

After being greeted by their friendly cat, Chelsea, once everyone had arrived John spoke to us for a while, welcoming us into his garden and talking about some of its main features. Continue reading A visit to John Tucker’s garden →

Breaks, Carer Stories, Centre News, Events

Our green-fingered gardening team

Our fab garden volunteers!
Our fabulous Garden Volunteers!

In 2014, the Carers’ Centre was generously donated a garden from the One Show. 18 months on, the garden looks as fresh and vibrant as ever, thanks to our wonderful team of garden volunteers. The garden volunteers meet every Thursday morning to water plants, weed flower beds and ensure the garden looks inviting for carers, staff and professionals visiting the centre.

We’re thrilled to announce that the group is now being led by John Tucker, a gardening guru, who has led many gardening breaks at our Centre. John will guide gardeners through the necessary jobs and provide expert advice on how best to do the work. He has many years of experience as a gardener and deputy manager of Prior Park Garden Centre so he really knows his stuff!

Continue reading Our green-fingered gardening team →

Carer Stories, Carers in the media, Young Carers

National Young Carers Awareness Day – 28th Jan

Joe in our Carers Centre garden
Joe in our Carers Centre garden

Tomorrow is National Young Carers Awareness Day, a national event aiming to inform the UK of who young carers are and the hidden struggles they face every day. Therefore today, we want to highlight one of our brilliant young carers, who we named our Young Carer of the Year 2015.

Seventeen-year-old Joe Lomax is the main carer for his mum, who suffers with chronic back pain. Joe manages to provide this care while attending college and looking for part time work. This isn’t all: he is becoming increasingly involved in our Young Carers service, acting as a fantastic role model for other young people. Joe’s friendliness, warmth and compassion means he always welcomes new Young Carers with a smile.

During the Young Carers ‘Big Day Out’ trip in August, Joe provided hands on help for the YC team, assisting the youngest boys to build rafts and row boats, while also organising the children effectively. At our bike workshop later that summer, Joe spoke to various trustees about the work he was doing to the bikes, providing an informative and funny description of the day’s events. They were really impressed, which helped their decision to fund more Young Carers activities in the New Year.

Joe is one of our most popular Young Carers and a true example of how amazing these young people are. It was an honour to award him our Young Carer of the Year 2015 and we can’t wait to see him again this year!

Young Carers Awareness Day is on Thursday 28th January – please get involved or donate to support Young Carers like Joe. You can find more information from The Carers Trust here: https://www.carers.org/young-carers-awareness-day