Fortunately, the weather held out and it was a beautifully sunny and warm day.

The young carers were split up into 4 groups to begin with and rotated across various activities such as parachute games, tennis, assault course, archery and egg and spoon race. We were supported by seven amazing volunteers from St James Place who helped with the activities and made sure the children had lots of fun.

For a cheeky twist on the classic egg and spoon race the children were given beanbags and after a couple of rounds they were blindfolded and faced away from the start line. It is an understatement to say chaos ensued! Bean bags were lost, and all sense of direction was out of the window.

Archery was kindly hosted by Andrew from The Pavilion, and it hit the mark with all the young carers.

The afternoon consisted of football, rounders and ended with the much-loved dodgeball, with adults mixed into each dodgeball team there was an uprising with chants of ‘get the adults’ and all the children had fun with their new targets.

The young carers got a lot out of the day, many young carers were in groups with people they had never met before and this didn’t stop them being talkative with each other, lots of new friendships and peer support systems were formed. It was heartwarming to see their confidence grow throughout the day, seeing them swap numbers with each other and even children who knew sign language signing to each other. 

When asked if the day helped them the young carers said;

‘It made me feel like part of a nice group/community’.

‘Yes since we could interact with people who were in the same situation as us’.

‘it help meet people going through the same’