Bec's story

I care for my three children, and that's Oliver, Theodore and Gwendolyn and they all have different needs. So Oliver and Theodore both needed speech therapy in order to be able to be effective communicators at school. My daughter, Gwendolyn, she is a different kettle of fish altogether.
So she is globally delayed and also has a peg. So that's a little button in her tummy where she gets her feeds because she is unable to swallow. Quite late in my journey as a mother did I realise that I was a carer and beyond just being a parent.
I think that came from the medical teams that were working along my three children. They told me that you need to get some extra support, this is a lot that you're doing beyond normal parent raising responsibilities. Some of the challenges in my life, my day to day life, are that I work part-time and then completing work commitments, and then committing to the therapies that the kids need.
So my well being has obviously been impacted as a carer because that time that you get to spend on yourself. I've had to cut back on my career and every other aspect of my life and certainly having the reward of seeing the kids succeed certainly gives that real sense of well being. So my experience with Carer Gateway was that I actually didn't know it existed.
On my journey as a carer, I'm finding out a lot of things, and so it was a surprise to find out that there was such a support service. I have a big sense of community. I like that sense of feeling I belong and giving back to the community. 
So in my career as a teacher, I was a caregiver there and then as a volunteer in the rural fire service. So many things bring me joy, first of all my family, and that's when my children are able to do everyday accomplishments, doing things that we love doing. So going on bike rides, going to the skate park, going to the beach and seeing my family just enjoy themselves and forget about the stresses that we have.
So my greatest achievements are my children, and seeing them succeed in life and thrive and continue to do so despite the challenges that they have faced. And my other sense of achievement, I would say, is I'm quite driven and have been promoted to DC. So an officer in my local brigade and also as a head teacher of a faculty, again, being promoted into that position. So the best thing about being a carer is watching my children achieve their goals.
The advice I would give to other unpaid carers is, don't be so hard on yourself and there are always support services out there such as Carer Gateway, and they should really access it. It provided a lot of support for me.