Teesside young carer tells us how he balances life during school holidays
Many people are having to juggle looking after their loved ones, doing homework and also spending time with friends
Last updated 1st May 2025
We are hearing how young carers in Teesside are juggling their lives during Easter half term.
It comes as many may not be able to enjoy time with their friends because they are looking after a loved one.
16 year-old Myles Sivewright is from Stockton and he cares for his 13-year-old sister.
He said: "Some of the things that I do; I'll spend time with her helping with different jobs around the house so that my parents don't have to do everything. Manual lifting to get her to different places in the house, giving her meals through her feeding pump and then a lot more on top of that as well.
"Being a young carer is both one of the hardest and one of the best things I've done with my life because despite how tough it can be, it's given me so many essential life skills that I don't think I would have learned not being a young carer. For example, I think I'm quite good at noticing when people might need things because you have to be very observant with my sister to find out what she's asking you for.
"The college work I get I try and do as much of it in my college as possible because then my time at home can be spent helping my family when they need it, and just taking time to myself without having to focus on college because it's essential to have that time just to yourself.
"Most of my friends are very aware of what my life is like as a young carer so they understand that I might not always be free to go out or might not always want to go out with them, so they don't try and push me to come out. If I come out with them then it's a bonus but if I don't then they aren't like 'oh, how come you're not coming?' They understand that.
"In school breaks my caring roles are definitely more full-on than it is during college hours because my sister is always home all day, she's not in school either but my parents are still working. It means it becomes a lot harder to just drop everything and go and see friends. However they do come around to mine quite a lot to try and help me with stuff just to try and like spend some time together without me having to leave my sister."