Maria's story
Maria is a dedicated mother to her young son, who is autistic. She and her husband provide their only child with unique, tailored care, whilst navigating their family journey in a foreign country - as both Maria and her husband are Spanish. Here, Maria shares her journey to finding the support, community and financial stability they've needed, with help from The Carers' Centre.
I am Spanish, married to a Spaniard and together we have a beautiful child who was born in Bath. I am a health professional and I have lived in the area for several years. Together with my husband, we have managed to move into in our own house through the Shared Ownership Scheme and have achieved a little peace of mind by being able to secure a future for our little one, who is our treasure.
I take extra care of this special little angel that God gave me, who is my son. He came into my life to give me the wonderful experience of being his mum and give meaning to my life. My son is a beautiful, autistic child full of tenderness and love, with a desire to conquer the world and I need to dedicate a lot of focussed time to him. I have great challenges because of the language barriers. I have lived in England for several years but my world around me is only in Spanish, so I have very little opportunity to practice English. I know enough for people to understand me but I have difficulty understanding people in return, and this in some way has distanced me and made me lose confidence in myself.
Back in 2020, when the pandemic began, my husband caught Covid-19 and this caused him great anxiety. This increased my concern about the responsibility of being able to take care of my family, without having friends or family to lean on for support.
Everything became so uncertain and fear took over me because I knew that I must not get sick. I had to find the strength to face the situation and take care of my family.
I knew a social worker at the Radstock Children's Centre who had helped me find a nursery place for my son at First Steps Bath (BOP) and they also helped me apply for my son's DLA. This social worker was able to understand my situation and urgently saw the need to register me as an unpaid carer so he actioned a referral for me. Despite receiving my Carers' Card, I never contacted The Carers' Centre because of my limited English, until one day I received a message from Caroline from the Wellbeing Team who, recognising my language limitations, gave me a warm welcome and helped me participate by communicating with me in Spanish. Caroline invited me to join some wellbeing activities and I was able to experience the great work that you do.
I realised that even though I don't have close family and friends here, I can receive great support from you.
Support through Carer Money Matters
I received a kind message from Sophie in the Support team about financial support. Due to my son's needs regular employment is impossible.
To fulfil our dream of buying a home, we had to use all of our savings and take on the responsibility of meeting more living costs when the cost of living has risen markedly. It has been a great challenge to meet all these financial responsibilities such as paying the rent, the mortgage, the Council Tax, the utilities and covering our basic needs of food, vehicles and so on.
This grant really was a blessing that helped us enormously in our daily lives. Honestly, I was very surprised because I did not expect so much help from you. In addition to covering our food, I was able to buy summer uniform that my son did not have and re-fresh all the old uniform for him that he had outgrown.
The impact was very noticeable as I did not have to choose between paying for something important for something more important.
From experience, my advice is to reach out to The Carers' Centre if you are struggling. It is important to know that there is a special group able to offer a helping hand and more when you feel alone with many responsibilities.
In my case, being alone with my husband and son in a foreign country, with language barriers and with a family member who has additional needs, knowing the support they offer is priceless - not only for the material but for the emotional support; that is the most important thing.