Alice

My Mum lives a three-hour drive from us. She has Parkinson’s and deteriorated very significantly during the lockdowns, to the point of developing dementia symptoms. This has been hugely worrying, and also very time consuming trying to support her remotely and negotiating with social workers and GPs. This cut into my ability to do my job in terms of time and my ability to focus and work. (I was so emotionally drained and not sleeping). At the same time my husband lost all of his work over a six-month period but wasn’t eligible for financial support, so I had to carry the family financially, putting more pressure on me to earn money which I was struggling to do. All of this has put a huge burden on me emotionally, to the point where, for a long time, I’ve been feeling utterly overwhelmed and just not coping. We are lucky that we have some savings to help us through this time. God only knows how we would have managed if we didn’t.