Our first webinar was all about what it means to be a carer. Our Ambassador Chris Underhill MBE, and our Founder and Executive Director, Anil Patil, were joined by Emilie Weight, James Townsend and Parvathi. Emilie is Patients Advocacy and Sustainability Head at Merck France. She also leads the caregivers’ Employee Resource Group at Merck. James is the co-founder of Mobilise, an online community providing resources, support and community to family carers. Parvathi is from India and cares for her son. She was one of the first family carers we supported in our work and we were delighted to be able to share a pre-recorded video of her answering the same questions as the rest of the panel.
It was a very interesting and though provoking conversation and panellists discussed what it meant to be a carer, the impacts of caring, the support carers need and what action needs to happen in society to support carers. It was striking that the issues were synergistic across the globe and as our ambassador Chris Underhill put it “There is a worldwide fellowship when it comes to caring – there is more that brings carers together than there is that separates them, even if we are talking about very different countries and very different backgrounds.”
