My name is Mike O’Brien and I’m an unpaid carer for both of my elderly and disabled parents who also have various other health conditions between them both. We live in a town called Barry (think Gavin and Stacy) in South Wales. Before becoming a carer I had a good career in IT which I had to give up to care full-time for my parents and if I wanted to go back to that carer now it would be very difficult as all of my professional qualifications are now so out of date that I would be basically starting from scratch again.

I enjoy a varying range of music from heavy metal to folk music to blues and country and western. I also enjoy reading and watching anything that is Science Fiction or Fantasy based.

Since joining Twitter and with the support and encouragement of others I have been proactive in fighting for the rights of carers and those we care for. Things I’ve done so far include:

Petitioning the Welsh government to create a national register of carers in Wales.

Petitioning Welsh government to better engage with unpaid carers.

Spoken with politicians both within the Welsh and UK governments.

Spoken with the Welsh Gender Equality Committee on the issues faced by unpaid carers along with Katy Styles from the We Care Campaign.

I have also been engaged as a Community Correspondent with Carers World Live to report on the issues faced by unpaid carers in the UK.

An article of mine publish over at psychreg.org