Portraits of young carers on display in gallery
- 12 February 2015
Portraits of young carers and celebrities are being showcased as part of a new exhibition called 'Hidden' by the Children's Society.
The gallery has displayed the portraits of 28 young carers and three celebrities, who used to be young carers too.
A young carer is someone who has to take care of their parent, or brother or sister if they are too poorly to do normal tasks, such as cooking and cleaning.
Full-time job
Being a care-giver can be a full-time job for many young carers, and around 1 in 12 are caring for more than 15 hours a week.
This can sometimes have a knock on effect on their everyday life, and around 1 in 20 young carers miss school because of their caring responsibilities.
There are around 166,000 young carers across the country.
The exhibition hopes to raise awareness of the extra jobs that young carers do, and encourage MP's and local authorities to do more to support them.
Jade Ewen is a singer/songwriter, who used to be in the girl group Sugababes, and used to be a young carer for her mum and dad.
She and her brother and sister had to take on a lot of the household jobs when they were younger, when her Mum became too poorly to do them.
She spoke about how she balanced her school life, with being a young carer, and the extra pressures and responsibilities that involved.
