New Forest Young Carers awarded £86,000 by BBC Children in Need

Community First New Forest’s Young Carer Service has been awarded a three-year grant of £86,000 by BBC Children in Need.

This grant will fund Community First New Forest’s Young Carer support work and activities, helping make a difference to the lives of disadvantaged children and young people in the New Forest.

The New Forest Young Carers Service offers support to children from the ages of seven to 18 years old who have someone at home with a long-term illness or disability.

This could be anything from a Mum with MS, a Dad with bipolar or a brother on the autism spectrum.

Many young Carers miss out on a regular childhood because of their caring responsibilities.

This is where the service steps in, to provide Young Carers with the opportunity to have time to themselves and have fun.

Young Carers Coordinator Marie Shotbolt said: “Young Carers can suffer from stress and worry and are often quite lonely.

We offer them support both at home and in school, but more importantly for many of the young people we support, we offer them the chance to have fun.

This award is the most amazing news as it means we can continue our vital work for another three years.

We have wanted to develop the support we can offer to help Young Carers become better at coping and now, thanks to BBC Children in Need, we can.

This money will make a real difference.”

BBC Children in Need relies on the generosity and creativity of the thousands of supporters and fundraisers who raise millions of pounds for the charity every year.

To date the UK public has raised over £1 billion for children and young people facing disadvantage across the UK.