I was on national TV!

As I sit and write this blog, I’m still buzzing from the experience of being interviewed on national television last week (ITV’s This Morning, if you hadn’t heard!) What fun! What an amazing opportunity to highlight the realities for unpaid carers!

I know I’m overdoing the exclamation marks, but the excitement just can’t be contained!!!

You can watch the interview here if you want to jump straight to the good stuff.

Hopefully, you’ll stick around for a while too as I’d like to talk a bit more about my celebrity 😉 experience, the people who made it happen and where things might go from here.

Life before Carers Collective

For those of you who don’t know, I’ve been a carer since my son Elijah – then 18 months old - suffered a catastrophic brain injury from a post-surgical infection in 2007. He went from being a happy, healthy toddler (albeit a toddler with Apert Syndrome, the same condition I was born with) to needing 24-hour care for a wide range of complex medical conditions, including epilepsy, scoliosis and cerebral palsy.

Our lives changed beyond recognition as I began to navigate the health and social care systems.

In 2015, Elijah was awarded a Personal Health Budget, which enabled me to have direct control over aspects of his care where we were reliant on external services. It was another steep learning curve, as I essentially became a care manager to a large team overnight.

In 2021, seeing the added burden the COVID pandemic had placed on unpaid carers and experiencing the isolation and stress first-hand, I decided to set up Carers Collective.

By that point, I’d been working with the wonderful Tamsen Garrie, who I met through The Catalyst Care Group, as my coach for about five years. This experience showed me – and continues to show me – how the right support is empowering and can work wonders for your mindset and resilience, even in the most trying of times.

I had also recently had a number of one-to-one consultations with Kerry Seymour from Inspired to Change before joining her six-week solution-focused hypnotherapy and coaching programme. It was a revelation!

I’m certainly more solution-focused now and the skills I learned through the programme were a great help in enabling me to recover from the emotional trauma of Elijah being in hospital for eight weeks at the end of 2021.

I launched Carers Collective because I want to help other carers access the same support.

Little did I know that Carers Collective would take me on a journey that would lead to remarkable collaborations, inspiring opportunities, and a growing platform for raising awareness about the challenges faced by unpaid carers.

One-to-Many and meeting Nicola Rowley

In order to explain my journey, let me rewind a little bit…

During the first COVID lockdown, I enrolled in business whizz Lisa Johnson's One-To-Many course where I had the privilege of meeting (virtually, at that point) the fantastic Nicola Rowley, a PR consultant.

In 2021, I reached out to Nicola to discuss the idea of raising awareness for Apert Syndrome during the dedicated month of June. With Nicola's expertise and guidance, I was able to secure valuable exposure, including features in renowned magazines.

A year later, after securing lottery funding to provide a six-week support programme for carers through Carers Collective, I approached Nicola once again, this time with the intention of shining a light on the incredible work done by unpaid carers.

It’s a collaboration that continues today.

From videos to national television

Around the same time, I had the pleasure of crossing paths with Anna Brees, an ex-journalist who now runs Brees Media. Anna's involvement brought an exciting new dimension to my mission, as she captured powerful videos and created a compelling case study and press release.

Thanks to Nicola and Anna’s combined efforts, my story caught the attention of David Blackmore from This Morning on ITV. The possibility of appearing on national television during Carers Week (5th-11th June 2023) became a reality.

Just imagine how excited I was when I got that phone call!

After a few calls to tell my story and prepare for my interview, it was confirmed that I had been booked to appear as guest on Tuesday 6th June as part of the Carers Week coverage.

My experience as a guest on This Morning

I’ll be honest, there was a moment when I thought the interview might not happen. Elijah had been in Bristol Children’s Hospital for several days after having epileptic seizures that required emergency medication and monitoring.

I was torn between staying in Bristol with my boy or getting the message out there about how important unpaid carers are and why we need support. My previous coaching kicked in – Elijah was stable, safe, and in no immediate danger. I would only be away overnight and could make such a positive difference to other carers by sharing mine and Elijah’s stories. So, off to London I went.

Let me tell you, I could get used to life in front of the camera!

The production company kindly arranged for me to stay the night at the Hilton Hotel and a car collected me at 8.15am. All of the team were warm and welcoming as I was prepped for my appearance. From behind-the-scenes insights to having my makeup done by a professional makeup artist, every moment contributed to a truly unforgettable experience.

I felt calm and confident as I sat down on the sofa with Holly Willoughby and Josie Gibson presenting and agony aunt Deidre Sanders by my side (Deidre had been an unpaid carer to her husband before he died).

If you missed the link at the beginning, you can watch the interview here.

The team at This Morning did a great job in identifying the potential pros and cons of appearing on the programme, including online trolling. The feedback from the public has been overwhelmingly supportive and positive but there’s always going to be that one percent who have a negative take! I choose to focus on the good.

Extending the impact

The interview on This Morning was just the beginning. The impact has already reverberated, leading to follow-up interviews in publications such as the North Somerset Times, New York Post, and the Daily Mail. This means my story is reaching wider audiences, raising awareness about the challenges faced by unpaid carers.

Carers Collective

As well as Elijah, Carers Collective sits at the heart of this experience.

We now offer a six-week “Coaching for Carers” programme, which uses a Solution-Focused approach based on modern clinically proven, neuroscience-based techniques. During the programme, we help carers to understand how the human brain works and why it gets us stuck sometimes. We also teach how to get your brain working better for you so you can achieve the outcomes you want. The aim is to help carers find their own solutions to getting their life on track feeling positive, confident, motivated and focused. And the best bit? We do all of this without any need to revisit the past or unpick old problems!

Support and collaboration are key

My personal journey exemplifies the power of collaboration, determination, and a shared vision.

From my initial encounter with Nicola Rowley to the national television appearance on This Morning, the impact of raising awareness about Apert Syndrome and unpaid carers has been profound. Together, through Carers Collective, we continue to champion the cause, empowering and supporting unpaid carers on the remarkable difference they make.

I’d like to say a heartfelt thank you to Nicola Rowley, Anna Brees, David Blackmore, and the entire team at This Morning for this amazing experience. I’m excited about what comes next!

Carers, get in touch!

If you’re a carer, I’d love to connect with you. You can find me on Facebook or Instagram.

Additionally, I’m happy to work with businesses who have unpaid carers among their employees to explore how our support programme can help to create a caring work environment. Connect with me on LinkedIn to initiate a partnership.