There is something almost laughable about sending emails to social care explaining that your transplant team wants to put you on the heart transplant waiting list and that you need them to finally fund the skilled provider your disabled daughter needs, only to receive a reply several days later beginning, “I hope this email finds you well.” Well, no, actually. It doesn’t find me bloody well. That’s rather the point of the emails I’ve been sending for the past eighteen months.

Recently, I put a post on Facebook asking whether anyone could help me with something relatively small. Nobody replied. It wasn’t a big request, and I certainly don’t expect people to drop everything to help me and my daughter. But it made me realise something rather sad. I really don’t have many people left in my life. And I think that’s one of the things nobody really talks about when it comes to being a long-term unpaid carer. You don’t just give up your time. You graduall