Sixteen-year-old Illiana has been caring for the people she loves since she was four years old. This summer, a bursary place at the Young Carers Festival gave her something she rarely gets: a weekend that belonged entirely to her.
Most mornings, before Illiana has even had breakfast, she already knows whether it is going to be a hard day. If her mum, Frankie, has had a seizure in the night, the day starts there. Then it’s Nan, who has Parkinson’s disease she will call to do a check in – when she visits her she helps with feeding, moving around, washing and getting dressed. Then it’s a check-in with her step granddad Tim next door, who has cancer and needs reminding to take his medication. Some evenings she walks his dog for him too, because he can no longer manage it himself. On top of that, she recently spent several evenings a week caring for a family friend’s daughter, who has autism, as her dads been away training for work and her mum has needed some down time, often staying late so the little girl has support when she’s struggling to settle.
“I don’t have to care for them, but I do it because no one else will – and because I want to.” – Illiana
Illiana is one of an estimated 130,000 Young Carers in England and Wales – though the real number is thought to be closer to a million, because so many, like Illiana, simply get on with it without anyone officially knowing. She is home-educated, partly because of her own additional needs, which makes the scale of what she takes on every day easy to miss.
Caring Since She Was Four
Illiana’s caring role isn’t a recent development. Her mum recalls one of her earliest memories of Illiana as a carer: aged just four, out in the community when her mum had a serious cardiac episode, Illiana called for an ambulance herself and calmly directed the paramedics to where they were. Frankie has since had five separate heart surgeries. During one six-week hospital stay, Illiana sent her messages, poems and small handmade gifts every day – and when she was allowed to visit, she brought the family dog onto the ward and spent time with almost every patient there, including comforting a woman with a serious neurological condition and gifting her a piece of artwork.
It’s the kind of quiet, constant responsibility that rarely gets seen – and it’s exactly why the Young Carers Festival exists.
Three Years of Trying to Get There
Illiana had wanted to attend the Young Carers Festival for three years. Her local Young Carers service had explained that funding and capacity simply didn’t stretch far enough. Her mum described reaching what felt like “the end of the road,” and turned to YMCA Fairthorne Group directly to ask for help.
“I cried when you phoned and told me Illiana would be able to attend. It did mean a lot.” – Frankie, Illiana’s mum
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‘There Was No Judgement. It Was Just Fun.’
Illiana travelled up from Cornwall with her cousin, who also cares for her own mum. Over the weekend the two of them tried paddleboarding, joined an impromptu dance circle that somehow turned into a festival-wide conga line, and stayed up for fireworks Illiana still describes as the best she’s ever seen. They also signed up, on a whim, for a CV-writing workshop run by The Children’s Society – a session that led directly to a real job interview at an aquarium for later this year.
“There was no judgement. It was just fun.” – Illiana
Asked what made the weekend different from ordinary life, Illiana didn’t point to any single activity. It was the absence of something: the explaining, the caution, the sense of being watched or misunderstood that can follow Young Carers into every other part of their lives.
‘She Walked Back Through the front Door Like a Newfound Woman’
Mum, Frankie noticed the change the moment illiana came home.
“When she came back, she was like a newfound young woman. She walked in that door so independent. She’d been in the sun, she’d been laughing – it was just incredible to see the difference.” – Frankie, Illiana’s mum
That feeling didn’t fade when the weekend ended.
“I felt heavy before I left. When I came back, it felt light.” – Illiana
In the weeks since, Illiana has passed her driving test and driven long distances alone for the first time. She’s increasing her home-schooling hours after the summer. She went out with a friend, unsupervised, for the very first time in her life – driving them both to the beach to walk the dog. She went swimming on her own. Small things, perhaps, to someone who isn’t a Young Carer. To Illiana, and to Frankie watching her daughter build a life alongside her caring role rather than instead of it, they are enormous.
“It’s given her the confidence to say, ‘Actually, Mum, today I’m going to have some time for me. You’ll be okay.’ Before, she was too worried to leave me.” – Frankie, Illiana’s mum
Why This Matters to a Sponsor
When we asked Illiana what she’d say to a business considering supporting the festival, she didn’t need long to think about it.
“The weight of caring is quite heavy. And then when you go and have fun, there’s no weight at all. So I think by donating, the weight off of someone’s shoulders is massive.” -Illiana
Every £140 in sponsorship funds one Young Carer’s complete festival weekend – a bursary place exactly like the one that got Illiana through the door this year, after three years of trying. For every Illiana who makes it to the festival, there are Young Carers across the country still waiting for a service with the funding to say yes.
Corporate sponsorship is what closes that gap. It’s the difference between a Young Carer hearing “we can’t facilitate you this year” for a fourth time, and a Young Carer coming home lighter, more confident, and – in Illiana’s case – ready to take the wheel.
To find out how your business can sponsor a place at the Young Carers Festival 2027, get in touch at fundraising@ymca-fg.org or visit our website.
