by Author thatpaulhine

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Young Carers make music- Matt's story

Matt (not his real name) aged 16, is one of the young carers who has took part in our Life On Stream project . He cares for his elder brother who is blind and his mother who suffers from depression and chronic pain. Here is his story:

 

“When I was younger, my mum was a district nurse. She had to leave at five in the morning but always left us a packed lunch each day. My eldest brother has albinism and is registered blind, so I have to guide, cook and clean and do other little bits to help.

My sister left at 12 because she couldn’t take the home environment; there was a lot of pressure, a lot of tension and anger. My mum developed a back problem when I was about twelve years old. It progressed until a doctor told her she couldn’t work anymore and she now suffers from depression and constant pain. My brother and I were left to go through the teen years alone and it was tough, I have only just realised that. But like everything, my home life has its ups and downs and you have to make the best of what you’ve got.

My advice to other young carers would be to find a place to go and talk to someone. Don’t be scared. I was nervous at first but I did it. I like to be creative but I don’t often get creative opportunities like this.  I can draw at home but if I wanted to go out and make music, I wouldn’t have access to the equipment and, although I had tried music making before, I didn’t have the opportunity to look to record my stuff or experiment with new techniques like I have done here.

When we began the project, we all had different ideas- with every team there are moments. The difficulty working with other young carers is that we all have something which can cause tension or drama with other people. But I really enjoyed working with such a motivated group of people.

It was really nice to explore making music because I’ve never had the chance to try it out before. Being in this environment with musicians who are friendly and have a laugh with you really encouraged me to try new things and expand my skills and knowledge.

Creativity helps me to think positively, just getting on with music and doing something I like doing improves my mind-set. Knowing that you’ve created something gives you a nice feeling. I felt a lot of pride when making the soundtrack; pride and a feeling of accomplishment in saying, ‘Yeah, I did that.’”

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