We are delighted to share with you some of the entries we received from carers for the lockdown photo competition during Carers Week 2020. Each entry tells a powerful story of challenge, strength, love and/or resilience. A huge thank you to everyone who took part.
We will be announcing the winner on Monday 31st August 2020.
We hope to hold a physical exhibition of the photos in the future when social gatherings are allowed again. If you would like to have a photo included in the exhibition (but obviously not the competition) please email your image with a brief explanation to centre@coel.org.uk with the title “photo exhibition”.
We hope you enjoy looking at the entries as much as we did and feel inspired to share some of your own stories of caring through Covid-19 and beyond.
For the first time in three months I got to go into the garden to see my grandson. As my daughter was high risk and self-isolating, this was the closest I could get. I missed him so much.
This photo was taken when I took my daughter to the beach. It was the first time during lockdown that she wanted to come out of her wheelchair. We had walked along the path at the opposite side of the road many times, looking over at the beach and watching people coming and going but I didn’t think we could access it because the path leading down to it was too narrow and bumpy. This particular day I decided to cross the road and take the wheelchair as far down the path as it could go to let her get as close as possible. When the wheelchair couldn’t go any further I could see she was longing to reach the sand so I helped her onto her feet and supported her to walk the last bit of path. We did stumble and it wasn’t easy but we made it. She sat on the sand and I could keep watching her as I quickly turned round and dragged the wheelchair sideways to where she was sitting. We left it there as she excitedly headed towards a rockpool. I was so happy to see her joy and to see her moving. She jumped and paddled in the same rockpool for half an hour, totally mesmerised. It was wonderful to see. I was desperate to share this special moment with my husband so tried to take a photo of her but she wouldn’t let go of my hand so I just clicked the camera button without being able to ‘point’ it. I just loved this picture as it shows our hands holding, sharing a special moment, first time wanting to get out of the wheelchair for the simple pleasure of splashing in a little rockpool. Getting to enjoy something that had seemed impossible to do and impossible to get to, somewhere, from a distance, we’d seen other people go, but we did it together. It made me really determined to do it again. It made me proud of us. It made me feel grateful for this time together.
I have found being a carer can be quite isolating. With the rise of COVID this isolation increased even more. Getting outside in nature is one of the ways I have found to overcome it. I chose the attached picture because it captured how I have felt during this time. I have been isolated but found real solace in getting out and being in nature.
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