Carers Trust's ambassador, Greg Wise, has been a passionate and committed champion of unpaid carers ever since becoming a carer for his dying sister in 2016.

The prestigious actor and producer, who starred as John Willoughby in the 1995 film Sense and Sensibility and played Lord Mountbatten in award-winning TV show The Crown, has spoken movingly of the time he devoted to being an unpaid carer for his sister in the last months of her life before she died of cancer.

That experience has given him an acute understanding of the pressures faced by unpaid carers.

Greg said:

“I found myself the 24/7 carer for my sister, Clare, as she was dying of bone cancer. She didn’t want anybody else around over this time, so for her final three months I moved in and spent all my time with her.

"This gave me a real understanding of what a carer needs to be, what immense pressures that it brings with it, what ‘compassion fatigue’ one can face, but above all that it is a supreme privilege."

"A privilege and a trauma, equally balanced. I am in awe of people who dedicate themselves to the role of carer. I know I only had to do it for a few months. I cannot imagine how people do it for years and years."

“There are seven million carers in the UK and generally with little help and almost no support from government."

Carers Trust works to support unpaid carers directly through our network of 126 local carer organisations.

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