A YOUNG carer’s Christmas wish is for her parents to know how much she “respects” them.

She is one of hundreds of Swindon children who look after a family member.

Swindon Carers Centre supports more than 800 young carers in the town - but estimate that the true number could be much higher.

Sammy Hawkins, 13, has been a carer for as long as she can remember.

Her dad, an ex-squaddie, suffers from PTSD and a knee injury that has seen him go under the knife 17 times.

Her mum has a slipped disc, which has left her with mobility problems.

Sammy said: “I’ll help my mum out of bed, get her cups of tea and coffee, bring her dinner up and help her get dressed.

“She can walk short distances, but she’s in excruciating pain.”

As she’s got older, teen Sammy has been given more responsibility - but it hasn’t been easy.

She said: “Now that I’m older, it’s a lot harder. With the hormones, when I get bad it feels terrible.

“And because I’m older my parents give more responsible jobs, like going to the bank.”

Sammy’s first experience of Swindon Young Carers came when she was seven - referred to the Swindon Carers Centre’s youth scheme by a school counsellor.

Now, she’s one of a dozen children in the young carers’ forum, representing her peers.

Alfie Barratt, 11, says the forum’s meetings help him cope with his caring role.

“I enjoy the meetings we have,” he said. “You can speak to people who are like you.

“I can’t speak to my friends about it, because sometimes they take the mick. They find it funny how I’m a carer at 11. My friends don’t see the point of it.”

His sister - five years his senior - has epilepsy and psychotic episodes. “I can calm her down,” said Alfie.

“Before I came to Swindon Young Carers I was having anger problems at school, because I was so worried about my sister. I was holding it all in.”

Christmas can be one of the easier times of the year for the carers.

Christopher Jackson, 13, whose brother has autism, said: “He’s a little bit more relaxed. But if something winds him up he’ll go crazy and it spoils Christmas.

“My brother gets angry if he’s overexcited. And at Christmas everyone is overexcited.”

One girl, 13, who helps look after her twin sister, added: “Christmas is lovely. Everyone looks forward to it. Nobody’s arguing.”

But for others, it’s a dark time of the year.

Lee Hill, 12, said: “My dad died two days after Christmas ten years ago. It can be quite a sad time.”

The youngster helps look after his older brother and sister, who have autism. His mother has a physical disorder that affects her legs, with Lee helping her with household chores.

His Christmas wish is to go abroad: “I’ve never been out of this country. My mum can’t get insurance for her disability.”

Lee’s dream is to go to Spain: “It’s the centre of everything.”

Sammy’s is to visit a theme park with her mum and dad.

Comparing her life to her schoolmates’, Sammy said: “You see them going to theme parks with their families or just going for a simple walk in the park with their parents. Then you see that you can’t do those things and it’s kind of upsetting.

“But my parents always made up for it. They always spent time with me at home and they would try their best to go out as much as they could.”

Swindon Young Carers can’t take the youngsters they support abroad - but they do try and offer opportunities that wouldn’t otherwise be open to the young carers.

Earlier this year, those who look after someone with a mental health issue went ziplining and climbing on a residential activity holiday.

Drove Road firefighters spent a week with some of the young carers, teaching them how to fight fires on a fire service Salamander course.

More than 60 schools and colleges in Swindon are signed up to the Swindon Young Carers’ awards scheme, which sets a minimum standard for supporting the child carers at school.

Jo Vertannes of Swindon Carers Centre said: “Sometimes I walk away from young carer assessments and it can be overwhelming to think about how much they do at such a young age.

“A lot of those young people don’t even know they are a carer.

“Some of them are very resilient. They’re very brave and some are very humble. They don’t realise they’re doing things above and beyond their years.”

One “brave” young carer is Christopher, who is able to calm his brother when his mum and stepdad can’t.

The young teen, who said he hadn’t seen one of his sisters for eight years, said of his Christmas wish: “It’s for my family to all be together properly. I wish my brother could be normal for a day and I wouldn’t have to worry about anything.

“I just wish my family could be normal. But that can never happen because we’re not normal.”

For more about Swindon Young Carers, visit: www.swindoncarers.org.uk/young-carers.