On behalf of carers

Sir, Did your readers know that there are 6.8 million carers in the UK and every day another 6,000 people take on a caring responsibility? Unpaid carers face huge challenges providing care for disabled or older loved ones. For instance, according to our own research, a third of carers have never had any significant time off since they started caring. Would you like to do something about that?

I work for a fantastic charity called Revitalise. We provide much-needed respite holidays for disabled people and carers at three accessible UK centres, and we’re appealing to the nation on BBC Radio 4 to ask for more support for the nation’s unsung army of carers.

Our appeal will be presented by our good friend, the writer and comedian Arthur Smith, who is a vice-president of Revitalise. Arthur talks about his own experience as a carer for his mother, Hazel, then goes on tell the story of Mavis and Colin, who recently benefited from a respite break with Revitalise, which helped sustain their relationship.

Mavis and Colin have been married for 56 years.

When Mavis developed MS in her 20s, Colin gave up work to care for her, but was himself diagnosed with dementia in 2002 and Mavis is now his carer.

We want to help thousands more couples just like Mavis and Colin but to do so we need your help, so please tune in and support this very worthy cause. The appeal will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Sunday August 13 at 7.55am and 9.26pm, then repeated on Thursday August 17 at 3.27pm.

To find out more about our appeal, visit our website www.revitalise.org.uk. Please help.

Colin Brook, Revitalise, London.