‘ The carers are extremely good to me – they have become my friends, my family’
ALAN SNOWDEN, from Biggar, has been receiving free personal care for four years.
The 90-year-old said the service allows him to live a full, independent life in his own home – as well as giving him vital human contact.
He said: “It started when I had a collapse and was in hospital for a while. When I came out of hospital to go home, there was a carer waiting for me – and they have looked after me ever since.”
Alan’s son and daughter live in Balerno and Stirling and visit every weekend to help with the shopping and gardening.
But it’s the pensioner’s carers who provide a crucial point of contact for his daily needs.
“They are extremely good to me,” he told The Sunday Post. “They come in every morning to help me dress, and even the knowledge of them coming in is psychologically helpful.
“If there’s anything I need, such as collecting prescriptions, they can do it.
“They talk to me and we have a bit of banter together – they’ve become my friends, quite literally. They’ve become my family.
“They know about my family and I know about theirs.
“They are sometimes the only people I see of a day.
“If they think I’m not well, they phone up the district nurse or the doctor and get someone out to check on me. And they’ll call back later in the day to
see if somebody came. They look after me.
“By virtue of the care I get, I can stay in my own home, which is so important.
“I was never a social animal. I’d never fit in with some of the things I see elderly folk doing in a home – exercises and what have you.
“I would be hiding away in a corner. So I’d rather be here in my own corner.
“And I can still drive – mainly just into town, but sometimes I take a drive into the country. “I’m very protective of my carers because they are so good to me – I’d do anything for them.”